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The Sonny Thomas Show: Tartan Day Special

Listen Live

TARTAN DAY SPECIAL: 9pm – Robert & Louise Reid of the Caledonian Society of Cincinnati

Interview Bio

Robert C. W. Reid

Robert Reid was born in Seattle Washington and raised in the Midlands in England. His mother is from the Lincolnshire area in England but Robert has really embraced his Scots/Irish side, his father hailing from Larne in Northern Ireland. The family moved back to the US in the late 70’s and have lived in Cincinnati ever since.

Soon after college Robert got into bagpiping by joining the Cincinnati Caledonian Pipes and Drums. He has served as Band President, Quarter Master, Business manager and is currently the Drum Major and a bagpiper. He is also an Honor Guard piper for the Clermont County Sheriff and Loveland Symmes Fire Department. Robert has been on the board for the Cincinnati Celtic festival and the Ohio Scottish Games and is currently the President of the Caledonian Society of Cincinnati. In addition, he owns and operates Celtic Corner with wife Louise, who is a Highland Dancer and Judge. By day, he is Purchasing Manager for a rapidly growing local company.

Outside of bagpiping, Robert enjoys working on his 1979 MGB and 1949 Ford rat rod. He can be found helping coach his 8yr old son in his various sports and supporting his 10yr old daughter with her Highland Dancing.

Louise L. Reid

Louise was born in Glasgow, Scotland and moved to the United States at a young age. After a few years in Chicago, her family settled in Cincinnati, Ohio where her mother opened a dance studio. Louise began to take Highland dancing at that time and competed successfully throughout North America and Scotland. She has competed in the World Championships at Cowal and had students qualify for the United States Inter-Regionals. She became a teacher in 1997 to continue to share her love of dancing and the Scottish culture.

In addition to highland dancing, Louise also enjoys other forms of dance including Ballet, Jazz, and Tap. She has taught courses in Scottish Highland and Tap dance at local Universities. Louise is co-owner of Celtic Corner where she works with her mother, Lenora Gilmour.

Louise is a member of the SOBHD Worldwide Panel of Adjudicators and a Fellow member of the British Association of Teachers of Dancing.

About Hunter Wallace 12367 Articles
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Occidental Dissent


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Meal Kit Provider - California Automatic Renewal LawCalifornia Automatic Renewal Laws and Recent Litigation

California Automatic Renewal Laws and Recent Litigation

Automatic renewal contracts have become ubiquitous in our everyday lives; however, few give thought to the laws and regulations governing them.  Whereas the federal government has regulations governing automatic renewal contracts[1], most states, similarly, have laws governing automatic renewal contracts, or automatic renewal laws (“ARL”).  Perhaps unsurprisingly, in 2009 California enacted one of the strictest ARLs intended to end the practice of charging consumer credit cards without a customers’ explicit consent for ongoing shipments of product or deliveries of a service.[2]

What is an Automatic Renewal under the Under California’s Automatic Renewal Law?

An “automatic renewal” is defined as “a plan or arrangement in which a paid subscription or purchasing agreement is automatically renewed at the end of a definite term for a subsequent term.”[3]  Similarly, a “continuous service” is defined as “a plan or arrangement in which a subscription or purchasing agreement continues until the consumer cancels the service.”[4]  While these definitions may appear to be esoteric, we encounter a number of automatic renewals or continuous services in our everyday lives – everything from meal kit boxes such as HelloFresh and Blue Apron, to monthly subscription boxes like Birchbox or LootCrate, to digital subscription services like Netflix, Hulu, Apple Music, or Spotify.

What Does California’s Automatic Renewal Law Require?

If a business wants to offer an automatically renewing contract it must:

  1. Clearly and conspicuously disclose, before a contract is fulfilled, the “automatic renewal offer terms” or “continuous service offer terms” of the contract;
  2.  Obtain the “affirmative consent” of a costumer to the “automatic renewal offer terms” or “continuous service offer terms”;
  3. Disclose any cancellation policies; and
  4. Provide notice of any “material changes” to the terms of the “automatic renewal offer terms” or “continuous service offer terms”[5]

What Terms Must Be Disclosed Under California’s Automatic Renewal Law?

The California automatic renewal law requires that “automatic renewal offer terms” and “continuous service offer terms” be disclosed in a clear and conspicuous manner before the contract is made or fulfilled and must include:

  1. That the subscription or purchasing agreement will continue until the consumer cancels;
  2. A description of the cancellation policy that applies to the offer;
  3. That reoccurring charges that will be charged to the consumer’s credit or debit card or payment account with a third party as part of the automatic renewal plan or arrangement and the among of the charge;
  4. The length of the automatic renewal term; and
  5. The minimum purchase obligation[6]

In 2018, the California ARL was amended to include that if the offer included a free gift or free trial than it must clearly and conspicuously notice the customer of the price that they will be charged and when the free trial expires.

What Happens If My Business Does Not Comply with California’s Automatic Renewal Law?

The California ARL does not provide for a private right of action, meaning a California resident cannot directly sue a business for violating the automatic renewal law.  The law simply provides that “all available civil remedies that apply to a violation of [the California ARL] may be employed.”[7]

That is not to say that the California ARL is without teeth.  To be sure, an organization known as the California Auto Renewal Task Force (CART), made up of District Attorneys from a variety of Californian counties, has filed numerous actions against businesses for allegedly violating the ARL.  An action brought by CART recently settled with the business agreeing to pay $400,000 in penalties and an additional $150,000 in restitution for violating California ARL by failing to get the customers’ affirmative consent as outlined above.[8]

Are There Any Other Concerns If My Business Engages in Automatic Renewal Contracts?

In addition to California, the federal government may impose regulatory requirements regarding automatic renewal contracts of which your businesses should be aware. Under Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA), the Federal Trade Commission is tasked with investigating businesses who fail to:

  1. Clearly and conspicuously disclose material terms of contract such as whether it is reoccurring;
  2. Obtain the consumer’s express and informed consent before making a charge; and
  3. Provide a simple mechanism to stop reoccurring charges.[9]

A recent case involving a California based company, Age of Learning, Inc. d/b/a ABCmouse, resulted in a $10,000,000 settlement after FTC alleged that ABCmouse failed to provide a sufficiently simple mechanism to stop the reoccurring charges for educational content.[10]

As transparency remains a cornerstone of compliance initiatives, whether under California’s ARL or ROSCA, it is critical for businesses to have great foundation for their business before scaling to avoid potential settlements or fines.  Our experienced litigation and compliance attorneys at Octillo can help your business navigate the complexities of drafting appropriate notices, or handling litigation resulting from California’s or any other states’ ARL.

*Attorney Advertising: Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Subscribe to our newsletter.

[1] See e.g. Section 5 of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45(a) (regulating unfair or deceptive practices); Restore Online Shopper’s Confidence Act (ROSCA), 15 U.S.C. § 8403 et seq (prohibiting charging customers unless there has been clear disclosure of, and express consent to, the material terms).

[2] Cal Bus & Prof Code § 17600 et seq.

[3] Cal Bus & Prof Code § 17601(a).

[4] Cal Bus & Prof Code § 17601(e).

[5] Cal Bus & Prof Code § 17602.

[6] Cal Bus & Prof Code § 17601(b)(1-5).

[7] Mayron v. Google LLC, 54 Cal. App. 5th 566, 570 (2020); Cal Bus & Prof Code § 17604(a)

[8] DA Announces Consumer Protection Settlement In Auto-Renewal Case (Mar. 7, 2021 at 5:48pm),

[9] 15 U.S.C. §§ 8401-8405 et seq.

[10] See FTC, 10 million ABCmouse settlement: Avoiding auto-renewal traps (Sep. 2, 2020 at 12:10pm),

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Sadness Is A Real Thing....

Posted on July 8, 2016 at 10:00 AM

The world we live in has turned to violence to solve all their problems. The happenings in Dallas are awful and it doesn't fix anything. All it does is create more hate. More hate for races, police, and any other thing people can find. And what is their answer to it all? Killing innocent people. Are there bad people. Yep. Are all the people like those people all bad? NO! I just can't fathom how these people think. Do they think they are going to kill off an entire group of people? It's just not going to happen. Hitler did that....he convinced people that Jews were bad. That's what these people are trying to do. It's just not going to work. Police lives matter. Black lives matter. Gay lives matter. Kid lives matter. Mom lives matter. Sick lives matter. EVERYONE"S LIFE MATTERS!!!!! Why can't people see that. When you kill are killing someone's mother, father, brother, sister, grandmother, grandfather, etc. What if that happene to you? My'd want instant revenge on whoever was you see the irony here? You aren't fixing're making this world worse.

Pray with me,

Dear heavenly Father, Please be with all those affected by this thoughtless tragedy. Be with the families who have to go on without their loved one and carry them through these impossible times. Steady the heands of the doctors who are caring for the wounded officers still fighting for their lives. Give courage to the officers who remain to continue to stand for what they believe in and instill in them your love. In Jesus' name...Amen

Dallas police, and all other precincts, need your prayers. They need to know that you stand with them and support all the times they put their lives in great danger. Dallas police were rushing into danger to protect those that were protesting against them. What does that tell you?

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text: TY - JOUR AU - Keon Seok Nam AU - Dong Gu Lee AU - Je Doo Ryu AU - Kyoung Nam Ha PY - 2019/05/01 Y2 - 2022/08/20 TI - The Basic Study of Underwater Robot Control for Over Actuated Systems JF - Proceedings of Engineering and Technology Innovation JA - Proc. eng. technol. innov. VL - 12 IS - 0 SE - Articles DO - UR - https://ojs.imeti.org/index.php/PETI/article/view/2746 AB - In general, only six individual thrusters are required to perform 6 DOF (Degree Of Freedom) motion. Sometimes, however, more than six thrusters are used for 6 DOF motion for a variety of purposes. The over actuated systems can transit quickly from transient state caused by disturbance to steady state through the over actuated input. So in the underwater robot, the purpose of over actuated system is mainly used to maintain stable motion and position. And that systems are performed to obtain the optimal efficiency through the thruster force distribution. In this paper, we designed and fabrication the ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) for the basic study of over actuated underwater robot. It has 4 horizontal thrusters and 4 vertical thrusters. Using this system, we derived the thruster force distribution matrix for thruster allocation. Also, to check the kinetic characteristics of over actuated underwater robot before applying various controller, we performed the basic motion performance test and motion control test using the PD controller in the indoor engineering water basin. ER -


text:
Data Science Toolkit Brings Big Data Analysis to the People

Pete Warden, OpenHeatMap, at Structure Big Data 2011Pete Warden has been analysing big data on the cheap for years, and he wants you to be able to do the same: Warden, who got famous for scraping 220 million Facebook profiles, unveiled his Data Science Toolkit at at GigaOM’s Structure Big Data conference in New York today, allowing anyone to do automate conversions and analysis needed to make sense of massive amounts of data.

For example, Data Science Toolkit offers OCR functionality to convert PDFs or scanned image files to text files, filter geographic locations from news articles and other types of unstructured data or find political district and neighborhood information for any given location. Data Science Toolkit is available as a web service online, but it can also be downloaded and run on an Amazon EC2 or VM virtual machine.

Explaining the motivation for this release, Warden said during his talk that he has been living off of ramen noodles for years, but that didn’t stop him from getting creative with data analysis. “I’ve had my service living off this same kind of budget,” he said, adding: “You can hire a hundred servers from Amazon for $10 an hour.”

That’s exactly what Warden did last year after crawling Facebook and scraping 500 million pages that represented about 22 million users. He let Amazon’s servers loose on the scraped data, and 10 hours later had it boiled down to a database-ready format. “That was about a hundred bucks,” recollected Warden.

The result of these efforts was a massive analysis of friendship relationships on Facebook, which got him interviews with NPR, 500,000 visitors to his blog — and an angry call from Facebook’s chief legal counsel, who didn’t like what Warden was doing with the company’s data.

The conflict with Facebook lasted several months and ended up costing Warden $3000 in legal fees. “Big data? Cheap. Lawyers? Not so cheap,” he quipped. That episode may be one reason that Warden released the Data Science Toolkit under the GPL — no lawyers necessary to use it.


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Debt is the least of Italy’s problems

No matter how much fiscal support he will receive, it will do nothing to reverse Italy’s productivity trajectory. And for as long as Italy remains part of the Eurozone, none of the above issues can be resolved. [...]

A catastrophe that will cripple Italy

If Italy fails – and there is a temptation to write ‘When’ instead of ‘If’ – it will be a catastrophe not just for Italy. It will be the end of the Euro as Europe’s currency. It will be the return of the euro crisis on steroids. [...]

Now for the next euro crisis

Now that the Greek banks have re-opened, the third bailout package is on the way and something vaguely resembling normalcy is returning to Greece, we can finally deal with other things again: the euro crisis, for example. [...]

The calm before the eurozone storm

The next stages of the euro crisis are already programmed into the system. It is just a matter of time until the current period of calm ends. And though it is impossible to when we can expect the next euro storm, one thing we can say with certainty: The euro crisis is not over. Far from it. [...]

Why the markets got it wrong on Europe

As government debt in the European periphery becomes a riskier investment, the yields on periphery government yields are not going up as one might expect. On the contrary: they are falling. [...]

An Italian hell

Just when many commentators thought the euro crisis was over, Italy’s political earthquake has put it back on the agenda. The problem is not so much that it is practically impossible to form a stable government with different majorities in the two houses of parliament. The real issue is that the anti-austerity forces in Italy have won a large majority. [...]

Berlusconi battles towards an Italian liberation

Because of all his personal failings, it is unlikely the Italians will give Berlusconi a fourth chance to lead their country. But he will at least trigger a debate on the benefits of Italy’s continued eurozone membership, which may well end up with a divorce. [...]

The Italian omen

Europe’s problems remain painfully real. But it was wrong to believe that they would inevitably lead to a cataclysmic crisis. It now looks as if it’s going to be much worse. There is never going to be a solution, just a slow, ongoing decline. Not a purgatory from which there is an eventual escape route to heaven, but a Dantean inferno with its famous inscription above the gates: ‘Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate’ – ‘Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.’ [...]

Der neue Untergang Roms – Europa vor der Demografiekrise

Generationen von Schulkindern haben gelernt, dass die europäische Geschichte mit Athen und Rom beginnt. In Zukunft wird ihnen ebenfalls beigebracht werden, dass an diesen Orten auch das Ende Europas seinen Anfang nahm. Denn Europa steht nicht nur vor der Schuldenkrise, sondern auch vor der Demografie-Krise. [...]
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"Be the change you wish to see in the world"

Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi

Thank you for visiting us. I would first like to explain the roots of Omtropy.

Om  is a sacred symbol in Hinduism.  It is the basis of all sounds and consists of the three letters;  A, U, M that cover the whole range of sound-vibrations.  Om represents all trinities. It is everything.  From the essence of the Vedas this trinity is Brahma-Vishnu-Siva, (past-present-future; birth-life-death; creation preservation-destruction; waking-dreaming-deep sleep; being-non-being-becoming).

'A' represents the physical plane;
'U' represents the mental and astral planes, the world of spirits and all heavens;
'M' represents the deep sleep state and all that is unknown  even in our wakeful state and all that is beyond the reach of the intellect.

Om represents ALL  and is the basis of our  life, thought and intelligence.
(from 'Bliss Divine' - Swami Sivananda).

To me, Om is  the first sound, the 'big bang!' and symbolizes the universal  life-force energy.   Everything has its own vibration and these subtle energies impact on everything around us.
'tropy'- I took from 'entropy' which denotes a measure of the efficiency of a system (law of thermodynamics];  or a lack of pattern or organization.   Again there is a relationship to this energy,  vibration and also chaos.   Everything we do, think, say and believe has a positive or negative effect on this universal energy (some call this karma).

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Yacht Charters at Los Angeles

Yacht Rentals Los Angeles: How to Rent a Boat and Yacht in LA

The yacht has always been a symbol of wealth and success in modern America. However, you don’t need to be a member of the Hollywood elite to explore the best sailing the City of Angels has to offer.

The yacht has always been a symbol of wealth and success in modern America. However, you don’t need to be a member of the Hollywood elite to explore the best sailing the City of Angels has to offer. With affordable yacht rentals in Los Angeles from OnBoat, you’ll find that cruising the waters of the Pacific Ocean has never been easier.

Why Rent a Yacht in Los Angeles?

Most people don’t even consider yacht rentals in Los Angeles because when they think of LA, they think Hollywood, star-spotting, and vast urban sprawl. The truth is the largest city in Southern California has a lot to offer those who love being on the water.

... Show more

Quick Facts

Suggested Airport
Los Angeles Intl
Average Temperature
79.8°F / 26.5°C
Annual Sunny Days
More than 330
Best Boating Season
Year round
Stay Aboard Index
4 stars

Check Off Your Maritime Bucket List with a Los Angeles Yacht Rental

At first glance, the biggest city in Southern California might not be the first place that comes to mind when you think of a party on a boat, but there’s a surprising amount to explore a mere stone’s throw from the city. With OnBoat, you can visit some of these incredible destinations:

Marina Del Rey

Visit the famous seaside community on the edge of the La-La Land and join more than 5,000 other boat owners. This water creation destination is the most popular weekend destination for LA residents and visitors alike, whether you’re looking to relax or live it up at a party. Fun fact: it’s the biggest man-made, small-craft harbor on the continent!

Catalina Island

Visit the ocean-side Shangri-La just to the southwest with a boat rental in Los Angeles. Available for day trips or an overnight stay, sample one of the most magical delights of California’s maritime offerings. From the high peaks of Mt. Orizaba to the cabanas of the City of Avalon, whether you want to enjoy some incredible nature or party in the art deco-inspired Catalina Casino, you can do it here.

Newport Beach

Head to the Balboa Peninsula at Newport Beach for its two piers, old-school amusement park, and ocean views. Known for its big waves and unmarred stretch of sand, grab your friends and rent a party boat in Los Angeles for a stop at Corona del Mar State Beach. If you’re looking for a little culture, why not head to the renowned Orange County Museum of Art? Whatever your tastes, there’s something to do for everyone at the infamous Newport Beach.

Palos Verdes Peninsula

Head south and cruise by the stunning Palos Verdes Peninsula. Sitting atop the iconic bluffs, you’ll spot the City of Palos Verdes. The rugged landscape of Southern California is a wonder to behold. Note that the peninsula is only for viewing from the water; renters can't dock at this destination, but the views are worth it. Quieter than many other common sailing destinations, it’s an excellent destination for those looking for a tranquil day on the water.

There’s a reason why the rich and famous choose to live in the nearby City of Malibu. Check out some of the most iconic residences in California while sailing along the 27-mile coastline. This pristine stretch of California is well worth taking a charter boat out for. Take note: powered boats cannot dock in Malibu without prior approval, but the scenery alone is well worth making Malibu a part of your route further afield. It’s also a great option if you don’t have the time for a longer charter trip.

Lies Quietly Next to Los Angeles

loation map
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How to rent a yacht in Los Angeles?

Are you worried about the cost of boat rentals in Los Angeles? In a city known worldwide for glitz and glamour, it’s a valid question. OnBoat’s mission is to make enjoying the Pacific Ocean access ible to everyone, and our boat rentals are designed not for the rich and famous but the average American. From experienced skippers looking for an adventure to newbies looking to get their feet wet, there’s something for everyone. When you book with us, here’s what we guarantee: Transparency – The boat you see is what you get. Everything is included in the price. With OnBoat, you know where you stand. Quality – You decide where you want to go. We’re at your service! Flexibility – Need an extra hour or two? Book it with us. The adventure only ends when you say it ends. Communication – A mechanical issue or weather conditions letting you down? You’ll know about it before you rock up to the harbor. Affordability – At OnBoat, it has never been cheaper to develop a love for sailing the ocean blue. We offer boats at all price points for large parties or small, intimate gatherings. If you’re ready to book with OnBoat, we make the booking process as clear and as simple as possible. Here’s how to book your luxury getaway in LA:
  1. Choose your preferred yacht. We provide clear details on the cost, the time, the type of boat, and how many passengers it can accommodate.
  2. Select your date. We’ll update you on availability as soon as possible. We strive to do everything we can to accommodate your needs.
  3. Pay the price. We accept all major payment methods through our website.
  4. Receive your confirmation email immediately.
  5. Within 24 hours, we’ll confirm the availability of the boat and your captain. If there are any problems, you can opt for a full refund or change your dates and your boat type.
That’s it! Our simple five-step booking process will have you looking forward to the trip of a lifetime. Join the thousands of Americans exploring the best maritime adventures LA has to offer and book your boat today.
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How much does it cost to rent a yacht in Los Angeles?

The cost of chartering a yacht in Los Angeles varies from the yacht size, length of the yacht charter as well as the seasonality factor. Prices typically range from less than $289 to $5,000 plus. There are also day charter options to go to Catalina Island which can cost $4,000 to $10,000. Los Angeles Party Yacht options will also include catering and open bar options.

What yacht charter is popular in Los Angeles?

When choosing your Los Angeles yacht rental, keep in mind the party that’s going to be joining you. For example, consider a catamaran boat rental out of Los Angeles if seniors or children will join you out on the open sea. A catamaran provides stability that you won’t find on a monohull sailboat. This makes it much easier to walk throughout the deck as well as around the interior of the yacht. Of all the yacht rentals in Los Angeles, a catamaran gives you plenty of space to lay about on the deck . Not to mention, those who are seasick-prone will feel the ocean’s motion significantly less.

What charter to choose: Los Angeles Luxury Motor Yacht

While yacht sailing has an ingrained essence of adventure, motor yachts offer a unique versatility that should definitely be considered for your next Los Angeles yacht party rental. Many of these allow up to 12 people. The benefits of a motor yacht are plain. These beautiful vessels are powerful and bring an element of speed to your voyage. Therefore, you can sail for greater distances at a faster rate than a traditional sailing yacht. So, feel the breeze in your face and explore greater areas when you charter a boat out of Los Angeles, especially if you choose a motor yacht

What charter to choose: Los Angeles Party Boat

Have a special event coming up or want to enjoy a fantastic weekend, consider a party boat charter in Los Angeles. A glamorous yacht party in Los Angeles will give you and your guest an unforgettable experience. Many offer the latest in modern electronics and entertainment systems. Host a karaoke night to show off your impressive vocal talents. Better yet, enjoy dancing to a club-class sound system.

What to do before you board a charter boat in Los Angeles?

For first-time charterers, get well-versed in sailing etiquette. Feel free to ask us or the yacht captain any questions before your voyage. To help you with some of the most common questions about booking your Los Angeles yacht charters, here are some handy tips: ● In general, wear boat-friendly foot attire. Avoid high heels or hard-soled shoes since they can risk damage to expensive teak decks. ● Protect yourself from the sun by bringing along a tube of sunscreen. ● Smoker’s, be aware that the majority of yachts will not allow smoking inside, if you’re uncertain, double-check with the captain. ● If you’re prone to seasickness, consult your physician ahead of time to see what medication will ease your symptoms.

While aboard

Experience the ocean when you rent a boat in Los Angeles as you cruise through the open waters. You should enjoy the sights of the sea life around you -- be sure to keep an eye out for any dolphins or whales. Also, bring snorkel gear to take a refreshing dip. Most importantly, always put on sunscreen before relaxing on the deck. The bottom line is you’re on a boat. The responsibilities of sailing and the agenda belong to someone else. The only decision to make while on a yacht is to let go and enjoy the ocean around you.
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OneSignal vs. Braze: What's the Difference?

Choosing between OneSignal and Braze? Compare our product and features and learn about the key ways we’re different.

Try Us For Free Schedule a Demo

A High-Level Comparison

The charts below give a high-level comparison of our channels, features, and pricing. For more detailed information on how our solutions differ, check out this article on choosing between OneSignal and Braze.

  • Mobile Push
  • Web Push
  • In-App Messaging
  • In-Browser Messaging
  • Email
  • SMS

  • Free Plan - Up to 10,000 web subscribers, unlimited mobile subscribers
  • Growth Plan - Starting at $9/month + subscribers
  • Professional Plan - Starting at $99/month + subscribers
  • Enterprise Plan - Custom Pricing
  • No Free Plan
  • Braze’s pricing isn’t available publicly

  • Content Cards
  • Basic templates for push permission prompts and app store rating requests (require coding to implement)
  • Braze shows when a notification bounces, but not when a notification does not display due to user preferences
  • Braze requires websites to implement their web push permission prompting logic from scratch
  • No free API access
  • Intelligent Timing feature uses AI to determine the optimal send time for each user
  • Cross-channel user segmentation and message personalization with Journey Builder
  • Performance analytics
  • AI campaign optimization features

Ready to Get Started with OneSignal?

Try Us For Free Schedule a Demo

Free Unlimited API Access

Whereas you must purchase a subscription to access Braze's API, we offer free unlimited API access because we believe that technical flexibility is a necessity in the messaging industry. We understand that every company, product, and use case is unique and we want you to have all the tools and resources you need to realize your vision. In addition to providing an open API, we pride ourselves on our detailed API resources and scrupulously maintained documentation library.

Competitor onesignal sdks

Straightforward Setup

Although Braze offers a full-featured platform with substantial capabilities, taking advantage of those capabilities requires an extensive setup process that can increase the time it takes to see the value of the platform. In contrast, our extensive documentation and powerful SDK make it easy to start sending messages and optimize as you go.

Technical Flexibility Without Sacrificing Useability

We may be the number one app SDK used by developers, but we know from experience that building an exceptional product requires a diversity of ideas and skills. In addition to offering developers an open API and easy-to-use SDK, our dashboard was crafted with product and marketing professionals in mind, so collaboration is never stymied by technical know-how.

Email create emails

Flexible, Straightforward UI

Our dashboard is simple to use and provides a variety of built-in customization options, so it’s easy to execute and optimize your messaging strategy without relying on technical support. Our flexible, straightforward UI is a key reason why we're favored for overall customer satisfaction, ease of use, key feature satisfaction, messaging automation and personalization capabilities, and analytical insight.

Competitor onesignal pricing

Try Before You Buy

Whether you’re a scrappy startup or a successful corporation, deciding how and where to allocate your resources is an important decision. Unlike Braze, we offer a robust free plan to help startups get off the ground risk-free and give larger companies the context and confidence they need to make an informed decision.

Along with providing unlimited push notifications and API access, our free plan gives you the opportunity to trial advanced personalization features and other messaging channels that are available on our Growth, Professional, and Enterprise plans.

Transparency in Action

We believe that transparency and communication are the foundation for strong customer relationships. Unlike Braze, we’ve chosen to make our pricing model and plan details public so that you won’t encounter any surprises down the road. In an effort to respect your time and trust, we also offer self-serve purchasing options, so it’s easy to get started or upgrade your account without jumping through hoops. At the end of the day, we want to deliver on our promises in a way that respects your preferences and your budget.

Mobile push every app

Reliability is our #1 Priority

When it comes to message reliability and delivery, we hold ourselves to exceptionally high standards. It’s no accident that we’re the world’s leading messaging provider. Learn why we’ve earned the respect and trust of companies across different industries and countries — and why they chose to make the switch to OneSignal.

Andrew Baltazar
OneSignal had all the features we needed out of the box, could deliver messages across both web and mobile, and presented a leaner workflow. It was a no-brainer.
Andrew Baltazar

Director of Product, Engagement, and Apps

Top Brands Choose OneSignal Over Braze

Ready to Get Started with OneSignal?

Try Us For Free Schedule a Demo


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By Gretchen Schuldt for   Published Nov 01, 2005 at 5:10 AM

The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of, its advertisers or editorial staff.

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker's mass transit budget is absolute magic.

It has to be. It's the only way it will work.

The county executive, as he does throughout his 2006 budget, relies on things that don't happen in the real world to make the transit books balance. He's combined gimmicks, games and financial shenanigans to conjure up a transit budget that relies on crossed fingers, crossed toes and wishing really, really hard upon a star.

A little budget alchemy has long been a proud Milwaukee County tradition, but with his 2006 transit offering, Walker may have slid over that soft line between illusion and delusion.

This budget is likely to crash sometime in the middle of next year if the county board doesn't fix it. The danger is that transit service will crash with it.

This is no small deal. Some 20 percent of households in the city of Milwaukee don't have access to automobiles, according to the latest census figures. These folks rely on the transit for getting to school, getting to work and getting around in general. Service cuts and fare increases make the working poor a little poorer.

To be fair, this mess isn't all Walker's fault. The state froze mass transit operating assistance for two years, then raised it a paltry $3 million statewide for the 2005-07 biennium. (Compare that to the $30 million the state budgeted for doing just the studies for the I-94 North-South corridor reconstruction project.)

Walker's gifts of magic include taking a bad situation and transforming it into something infinitely worse. Anticipating a $1.4 million increase in state and federal transit aid - far less than needed to cover increasing costs -- Walker cut proposed tax levy support for transit by $2.9 million.

He makes it all work by pulling numbers out of his magician's budget hat and places south.

Presto! Walker says he will get 10 percent more in fare revenue from 2 million fewer passengers.

Voila! The transit budget projects fuel costs at $2 a gallon; elsewhere in the budget, it's pegged at $2.20 per gallon. Another budget gap closed through amazing advanced monetary prestidigitation.

Abracadabra! Contractors hired for the Transit Plus program, a transportation service for the disabled, will provide more rides per hour. Walker doesn't explain how this will occur, just as the magician doesn't explain how his trick works.

Shazam! There will be 14,000 fewer Transit Plus rides than there were in 2004.

That's not explained either. Will our county executive simply make those people disappear?

Or perhaps those 14,000 people won't need Transit Plus. Perhaps the blind will see, the lame will walk, and the wounded will heal.

So maybe it isn't magic Walker is counting on.

Maybe it's a miracle.

- Schuldt, a former Milwaukee newspaper reporter, runs the Milwaukee Web site

Sign up now for a free e-mail election service from

Click here.


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/rdf+xml

text: material transformation objective material separation objective PPPB branch PPPB branch The objective to obtain multiple aliquots of an enzyme preparation. The objective to obtain cells contained in a sample of blood. is an objective to transform a material entity into spatially separated components. material separation objective portioning objective separation into different composition objective ready for release


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Exploring Cantata, a Linux music client that impresses

From setup to playback, MPD client Cantata is like music to the ears.
328 readers like this
328 readers like this
music infinity

Last month I looked at three Linux clients for my music player daemon (MPD) music server: ncmpcpp, Sonata, and GMPC. This month I'm looking at Cantata, recommended by two kind readers, and I really, really like what I see.

Because Cantata is a Qt-based application, I decided to have a look at the documentation before installing it. I spotted this interesting comment:

Unlike most other MPD clients, Cantata caches a copy of the MPD music library. This is so that it can create a proper hierarchy of artists and albums (where Cantata will use the AlbumArtist tag if found, otherwise it will fallback to the Artist tag), to provide album counts, tracks counts, etc in the browser views and tooltips, and also to help with copying songs to/from devices.

Awesome, Cantata priortizes the AlbumArtist tag and falls back to the Artist tag! Very well done—one of the most annoying things out there is a music player that flicks tracks from compilation albums all over the navigation device according to artist. That's my opinion, anyway.

Moreover, the fact that the developers take time to write this down in the application's supporting information, rather than just letting the user discover it on their own, scores maximum bonus points!!!

Convinced by what I saw there, I decided to give it a go and installed version 2.0.1, the version in my repositories.

Cantata has a very nice first-run process that collects setup information and provides useful information to the user along the way. For example, this note appeared on one of the first run screens:

Note: Cantata can only save backdrops, artist and composer images within the music folder hierarchy if this is 2 levels deep, i.e. 'Artist/Album/Tracks.'

In my case, this is fine, as my music library is organized that way, with compilations built under Various Artists/Album/Tracks.

I also spotted this note:

Warning: You are not currently a member of the 'users' group. Cantata will function better (saving of album covers, lyrics, etc with the correct permissions) if you (or your administrator) add yourself to this group. If you do add yourself you will need to logout and back in for this to take effect.

Hmm … the users group? I haven't run into that one before! But sure enough, there it is in my /etc/group file. For the time being I decided to leave that alone.

When I pressed the finish button to exit the first-time setup, the interface appeared immediately. I felt like listening to the Allman Brothers' Idlewild South, so away I went, right out of the box. Well done, Cantata!

Cantata's interface

The application interface is divided into four large and several small panels. The top, horizontal panel shows the playback controls, album cover, and play progress. The left-most vertical panel provides a series of controls that affect the panel immediately to its right. For example, in the image above, the library view is selected on the left, and the panel on its right provides a scrolling tree view of the artists, albums, and tracks in the library. The right-most panel displays the current playlist. The remaining controls, scattered around the screen, control various settings. Nice and straightforward organization.

Exploring the interface a bit more, I opened Settings and saw more wonderful, informative notes, like this in the Collections settings:

Cantata's collection settings

This is really great stuff. In other players, I sometimes have to dig deeply to get this kind of basic, essential information.

Cantata's info window

While continuing to explore the available settings, I enabled the info view in Interface Settings, by checking the box. This setting makes an Info icon appear on the left-most panel at the bottom, and clicking this icon makes an info window appear in the panel just to its right. In this info panel, we have the option of viewing information about the artist (extracted from Wikipedia), the album (showing the Album cover and the track listing), or the track (showing the lyrics). See more in the documentation.

The info window can show the artist, album, or track. I wish it offered more than just the lyrics for the track—like format, bit rate, etc. But on the positive side, the source for lyrics is completely configurable.

Info button

Screenshot by author

The Internet icon in the left-most panel provides a great default list of internet music resources, including:

  • Streams (i.e. internet radio stations from Dirble, IceCast, ShoutCast, and TuneIn)
  • Jamendo (requires downloading the music listing)
  • Magnatune (requires downloading the music listing)
  • SoundCloud (provides a search bar)
  • Podcasts (subscription via RSS)

It's great to see SoundCloud there, although there seem to be concerns about its future right now. Let's hope they can keep it going.

In addition to the nice collection of features, interacting with Cantata is very pleasurable. Even on my aging Dell desktop test machine, it's very snappy. Reloading the MPD database is ultra quick. I didn't run into any odd little quirks in the user interface, as I had I half expected.

So far the only thing that I'd like (and it may be there and I can't find it) would be to see format-related info for the track playing (e.g., is it a FLAC? Is it 16/44.1 or 24/96? What is the bitrate?), but the rest of it is very, very fine.

In conclusion, I really like Cantata. It's the first MPD client I've tried that feels as snappy and feature-full as some of the non-MPD based players out there, and yet there is no impression of bloat.

I highly recommended it to all!

Miscellaneous ramblings

We had such a lovely July in the Pacific Northwest this year! It reminded me of a long-ago summer... and my first record player. One of the records I recall playing—a lot—on that record player was Deep Purple's second album, The Book of Taliesyn. If you think of "Smoke on the Water" when you think of Deep Purple, you might be surprised by their earlier music, including this cover of Donovan's "Lalena" or—as I recall, anyway—my favorite song from that album, "River Deep Mountain High," with its "Also Sprach Zarathustra"-esque intro. I don't suppose it occurred to me at that time, but the prog-rock adaptation of the absolute barn-burner performance of that song by Ike and Tina Turner worked strangely well.

Anyway, I do believe that little record player was the basis for my first-ever hack. It had one, small mono speaker on the right-hand side of the unit that left something to be desired as far as sound quality. I also had a 1960s Philips reel-to-reel tape recorder that looked a lot like this and played in stereo; one speaker was on the front of the unit, the other was in the lid. It also had line-level inputs.

With some determined tinkering, I learned that I could wire up the crystal phono cartridge from the record player, which was a stereo cartridge despite the mono circuitry elsewhere, directly to the inputs of the tape recorder and play the whole works back in stereo over the tape recorder's (slightly better) stereo speakers. Later, I "borrowed" a better pair of speakers from somewhere and wired them to the tape recorder's amplifier outputs, and I had a sort-of real stereo that provided me with endless hours of musical enjoyment.

Did I like it more because I made it myself? Looking back, I think so. Certainly that same willingness to tinker has served me well in my life, as I learned about computing in university in the 1970s and moved into System V, then SunOS, then Solaris, and finally Linux, where there is no end of opportunity for further improvement enabled by the concepts of "openness" and "freedom."

Which brings me back to the topic of open source music players on computers running open source operating systems. What a great way to enjoy music and learn something at the same time!

And the music...

Before I go, I have three music recommendations (as usual) acquired from that fine, Linux-friendly music store, 7digital.

First up, Idlewild South, the second album released by the Allman Brothers Band. I never owned this on a vinyl record, although I did have their first album (and, yes, I did play it on my home-brew stereo described above). A number of years ago, I spotted Idlewild South on CD, but it was one of those early digital releases that was recorded at a very low average level and didn't seem to have the kind of impact you might expect from these southern rockers. So, when I saw the album had been remastered and was available as a high-resolution download, I thought I should give it a try.

Of course, sometimes remastering produces pretty lame outcomes because the engineer applies too much compression to make the music seem louder, or too much equalization to try to recover the bass that was eliminated to fit more music on the vinyl release, or whatever. However, my ears tell me that this remastering was very well done. The new version seems to have more punch and sparkle than the lame CD release, anyway.

Idlewild South's audio spectrum

The download I purchased is 96kHz/24-bit FLAC format, which is probably overkill for this album, but the Spek audio spectrum analyzer shows that the remastering appears to have preserved some reasonable dynamic range and the overtones. So, if you like this album, I recommend this version—especially over the old CD.

Next up, a band that's new to me – American Authors. Based on the album I auditioned and subsequently purchased, What We Live For, these guys are masters of the hook. Wow! This is serious forget-your-problems-it's-summertime music. If you decide to buy this, remember that the sound quality is OK but not great—quite compressed and it occasionally sounds like the recording was a bit too hot. But for dancing around the kitchen while the spaghetti sauce is cooking? Get it!

Finally, music of a different kind: En Otra Parte by the extremely accomplished guitarist Zsófia Boros. Lovely, evocative, and atmospheric music from Latin America interpreted perfectly by Ms. Boros and extremely well-recorded and produced by ECM Records.

Chris Hermansen portrait Temuco Chile
Seldom without a computer of some sort since graduating from the University of British Columbia in 1978, I have been a full-time Linux user since 2005, a full-time Solaris and SunOS user from 1986 through 2005, and UNIX System V user before that.

this looks like clementine, banshee player and rhythmbox.

Thanks for the comment, linuxmusiclover. A couple of ways to think about that. The first is that the key difference is Cantata is not a music player itself, but a front-end controller to the mpd music server. This is quite different than the players you mention, permitting the music server to run headless on one computer and the client to run on another, which is a great option for connecting to a home stereo. The second is that, in comparison to other mpd controllers / clients I've tried, Cantata has many more nice features common to integrated players, like scrobbling, fetching metadata, predefined streams... which makes it a much richer user experience than "those other controllers". Some users might prefer the more stripped-down approach, but I suspect that many coming from e.g. clementine would be more comfortable with Cantata if they move to an mpd-based environment.

In reply to by linuxmusiclover (not verified)

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.


text:
List of Oakland, Maryland Opportunity Zones & OZ Funds

The city of Oakland, Marylandhas 1 designated Opportunity Zone.

In total these Opportunity Zones have a population of approximately 5,700. That represents 330% of the city’s total population of 1,700.

The median household incomefor this Opportunity Zone is approximately $49,000.

The adjacent map shows all Opportunity Zones in Oakland. Click on any Opportunity Zone for additional information.

List of All Oakland OZs

The table below lists all 1Opportunity Zone in Oakland. The first two rows reflect average values for the state of Marylandand the Opportunity Zones in the state.

Name County Median Household Income Below Poverty Line Median Home Value Edu High School Median Age
All of Maryland n/a $87K 9% $333K 90% 39
Maryland OZ Average n/a $49K 10% $180K 88% 48
24023000600 Garrett $49K 10% $180K 88% 48

Maryland OZ Funds

There are 7QOZ Fundsin the OpportunityDb database with an investment objective that specifically identify Marylandas a target market. Additional OZ funds may also invest in Maryland; see a complete list of Opportunity Zone Funds here.


text:
List of Crawford County, Ohio Opportunity Zones & OZ Funds

Crawford County, Ohiohas 2 designated Opportunity Zones.

In total these Opportunity Zones have a population of approximately 6,100. That represents 15% of the county’s total population of 42,000.

The median household incomefor Crawford County Opportunity Zones ranges from approximately $36,000 to $39,000.

The adjacent map shows all Opportunity Zones in Crawford County. Click on any Opportunity Zone for additional information.

List of All Crawford County OZs

The table below lists all 2Opportunity Zones in Crawford County. The first two rows show the state wide average and the average for all Ohio Opportunity Zones.

Name County Median Household Income Below Poverty Line Median Home Value Edu High School Median Age
All of Ohio n/a $59K 13% $157K 91% 40
Ohio OZ Average n/a $38K 13% $70K 87% 38
39033974400 Crawford $36K 12% $71K 87% 39
39033974900 Crawford $39K 13% $69K 88% 38

Ohio OZ Funds

There are 9QOZ Fundsin the OpportunityDb database with an investment objective that specifically identify Ohioas a target market. Additional OZ funds may also invest in Ohio; see a complete list of Opportunity Zone Funds here.


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Washington communities bid for Amazon’s HQ2; focusing on what attracts investment and job creation

Several Washington communities are entering the competition for Amazon’s second headquarters (HQ2). When we first wrote about the company’s decision to expand outside its current Seattle base, we said the announcement launched a wave of speculation about where the company would land. But,

The speculation, however, is less interesting than the introspection occurring in Washington. Much of it is the kind of thing we’ve been writing about since Opportunity Washington launched several years ago. What makes a region desirable for investment and job creation? What policies promote shared prosperity? How do we expand opportunity in our state?

…The fundamentals still matter. Ideally, Amazon’s decision will help focus debate on how Washington can advance opportunity and job creation.

Communities in our state, recognizing they face long odds, are taking advantage of the competition to consider their competitive advantages and areas in which public policy can improve the odds.

The Spokesman-Review reports on Spokane’s thinking

If Spokane wants to make a competitive bid for Amazon’s second headquarters, it needs an extraordinarily bold, regional proposal, says Tom Simpson, a local venture capitalist.

Think of bullet trains connecting Spokane to Seattle, he said.

Or, a light-rail system that allows people to commute from Sandpoint to Spokane and from Spokane to Pullman, giving Amazon workers plenty of choices for where to live.

Or, workforce training for the tech industry at local colleges and universities.

Greater Spokane Incorporated is preparing the proposal.

“This isn’t our first rodeo,” said Robin Toth, GSI’s vice president of business development…

GSI has been working with politicians, local governments, Spokane International Airport, real estate brokers and others as it crafts the proposal, Toth said…

Aside from the headquarters, there will be other opportunities to attract Amazon operations to the Spokane area. Submitting the headquarters bid is another chance to tell Spokane’s story to company officials, she said.

In the Seattle Times, state Sen. Guy Palumbo endorses a collaborative regional approach, one which focuses on satellite offices in several communities

We cannot afford a piecemeal approach that pits our cities or counties against each other. It makes far more sense to pool our assets and do this together.

Our collective pitch should be focused on workforce availability and infrastructure.

He also cites some challenges.

But, if we are going to do this right, we have to be vocally self-critical about our shortcomings and work quickly to systematically address them.

For instance, the boom in tech jobs in Seattle was not matched by a corresponding boost in infrastructure, for which Amazon is routinely blamed…

We also have not adequately addressed our state’s workforce-development issues. We are turning kids away from computer science in some schools because we lack the physical space needed to teach them. It takes 14 years on average for a college to get a new building. The pace of innovation in tech, at Amazon specifically, cannot wait 14 years for qualified employees.

We can dramatically ramp up the number of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) degrees both operationally and by providing more higher education infrastructure. Lastly, we can bring back the data-center incentive and pass an amended research and development credit.

The News Tribune reports that Tacoma and Pierce County are pursuing a bid that specifically rejects the regional pitch.

Pierce County is well on its way in wooing Amazon to build its second headquarters in the City of Destiny — and says it doesn’t need King and Snohomish counties to do it.

In fact, rebuffing an offer from the counties to the north to join their bid for Amazon’s $5 billion campus and 50,000 high-paying jobs might help Pierce County’s chances with the company, a state official says.

Not a lot of detail on the Tacoma bid is available.

Broadly, the Pierce County proposal highlights available properties in Tacoma and nearby cities, touts the value of University of Washington Tacoma and will include letters from business and city leaders, [Pierce County Executive Bruce] Dammeier said.

He and others did not share more details of the plan. Many cities across the continent are closely guarding their proposals to maintain what they see as an advantage.

While the details of the various pitches aren’t available, a Wall Street Journal piece suggests things to avoid. The article calls the search “bad news for Seattle,” speculating that much of the firm’s expansion will take place at HQ2. That’s unclear. The article cites a report by Green Street Advisors, a real-estate research firm.

Amazon hasn’t said why it is expanding its growth beyond Seattle.

But the Green Street report speculates that a shift in the city’s regulatory climate might have played a role in the company’s decision to expand elsewhere. For example, Seattle recently approved an income tax on wealthy households, a move that is being challenged in court.

“It’s not too hard to connect the dots,” Green Street’s Mr. Bragg said.

As we said, a little introspection might be valuable.


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What Is Dynamic Range in Photography? Everything Explained!

| Last Updated On: July 19, 2022
Orah.co is supported by its audience. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn More
What Is Dynamic Range in Photography

If you are someone who is into photography, then it is safe to assume that you may have heard the term dynamic range being used now and then.

There is nothing new about it, this term has existed in the market for as long as one can remember, and it is important to have a better understanding of it, as well.

However, a lot of the times, people are wondering just what is dynamic range? Well, the answer is not that difficult.

For starters, dynamic range is essentially a measure that is used in a lot of different fields from photography to sound, physics, along with several other fields.

Therefore, understanding it in photography is different than it is in music or something similar. We are here to discuss how dynamic range works in photography and what exactly is it. After all, it is better that you have the information needed.

What Is Dynamic Range In Photography?

Simply put, the dynamic range is something that varies from photo to photo. It essentially is the measure of the range of light intensities from the shadows to the highlights, or the darkest parts of the picture to the lightest port of the pictures.

In other words, the dynamic range serves as the difference between the darkest and the lightest part of the photo.

I know it might be a bit difficult to understand, but the concept of dynamic range is relatively easy to understand, and it is also important to know that it is never the same.

Two pictures could have drastically different dynamic ranges, and that is what happens to be the most important aspect.

However, this does not end here as you have to understand how to use dynamic range for your advantage when taking photos.

Trees, sky and mountains with dynamic range

Why Dynamic Range Matters? How To Use It For Better Photos?

I remember every time someone asks me about a camera suggestion, the first thing they ask is how many megapixels are there in the sensor and not about anything else. It takes me a lot of time to explain how megapixels don’t matter all that many other details matter more.

Take the legendary Sony A7SIII, for example, it only uses a 12-megapixel sensor, but the camera is capable of delivering one of the finest performance as far as photography and videography are concerned. Why? Well, you are getting a lot of amazing features within the camera that makes it a perfect option.

Sun showing shine on the mountains and trees
Image: Doru Oprisan

The camera has one of the best dynamic range, and if you don’t already know, the higher the dynamic range of the camera, the more details will be retained in the shadows as well as the highlights of the image.

This means that if you want to boost the shadows, you will be able to do it without getting more noise in the darker of the images.

To get the best out of your camera and your dynamic range, be sure that you are taking pictures using a body that is good with dynamic range.

Most of the modern cameras come with 15 stops of dynamic range, which is excellent, and by some trial and error, you will be able to take excellent images in no time.

How To Judge Dynamic Range?

Judging or telling about the dynamic range by just looking at the picture is not possible at all. Even if you happen to have the highest grade display or the camera, for that, you will have to start paying attention to the histogram that you can see once you take the image or in image-editing software.

Now, what exactly is a histogram?

That is another question that a lot of people ask or want to know about. In photography, the histogram is used to show the range of subject brightness, starting with black on the left going to the white on the right.

The width of the histogram chart represents the dynamic range of your camera sensor. The wider the width, the higher the dynamic range.

Histrogram showing different options
Credits: SLR Lounge

However, there are some situations in which the subject dynamic range is bigger than the camera dynamic range, and if that is the case, then one part of your image either will be under or overexposed.

That is why a histogram is used to be sure that the dynamic range is perfect.

However, if you don’t want to rely on the histogram of your camera, you can always put the photo up into something like Adobe Lightroom, and that software is great for giving you more information on the image.

If the histogram fits inside of the histogram display area, then the dynamic range of the picture is within the range that your camera has to offer.

If the histogram is clipped at either end of the subject, the range is on the wider side. You can try changing the exposure of the camera and see the histogram move left or right, and see if you can fit the histogram within the display.

Setting Up The Scene: How To Extend The Dynamic Range

While this might not matter to the casual photographer or the hobbyist, this is something that is of higher concern to someone who wants the best possible photos.

1- Learn Your Histogram

Okay, first things first, whenever you are setting up a scene, I would suggest that you study a while about the histogram. I am not going to ask you to do it while you are in the middle of setting up for a scene but if you want to, start taking pictures of inherently different scenes and find out about the dynamic range.

In addition to that, I would highly suggest that you study histogram both on both your camera’s display as well as the photo editing software that you use so you can have a better understanding of how things work.

Histogram of a camera
Image: B&H

This is, for many people, a trial and error, but once you do get a hold of the histogram and how things work, you will not have any issues.

Once you have learned the histogram, you will have a proper understanding of how to take pictures without messing up the dynamic range in any of the shots.

This is one of the reasons why some people are generally so good at taking great-looking shots because they are fully aware of how dynamic range works, and how histograms are read.

2- Use A Graduated Filter

Graduated filter to a image
Photo: BDM Publications

A graduated filter or a graduated ND filter is something that is used a lot more common in the world of photography, and it can be used to allow you to shoot in incredibly bright conditions without the utter loss of highlights or shadows.

The thing with these filters is that you have to be certain that you are getting a filter that fits the thread size of the lens that you have. Therefore, different lenses have different ND filter requirements.

In addition to that, it is also important to know that high-end cinema cameras already are equipped with these filters.

But if you are using a consumer-level DSLR or mirrorless camera, you will have to invest in a graduated filter separately. If you are looking for a good company, PolarPro makes some of the finest graduated ND filters that are used by professionals all over the photography industry.

Granted, they are among the more expensive and premium options, but they are mostly one-time investments, after which you do not have to stress over whether you are going to waste your money or not.

3- Shoot Low ISO

I know this might not sound like an important thing to a lot of people, but if you are truly looking to get great dynamic range within your photos, you should shoot at lower ISO. The goal here is to go as low as possible without making the photo look completely dark.

The lower the ISO, the lesser the noise in the photos, which will give you a great overall experience, and you will not have any issues that might come your way, either. Just be sure that you are experimenting with ISO as much as possible.

The learning curve of ISO is not that difficult, to be honest. But if you are new to this, it might take some time before you get used to it, and you will do just fine once you do get a hang of it, and things will work just fine for you.

4- Avoid High Contrast Scenes

There are certain shooting conditions in which there is a lot of contrast going around. While I would not always suggest that you avoid them if you want to take picture of such a scene, be sure that you are using the three tips that I have mentioned above.

You might have to play around with the settings a bit to be sure that you are getting the best possible experience because, without that, you might not be able to get the right shot. The key here is to know all about photography and how things work together.

Your camera’s exposure, ISO, aperture, shutter speed, and other things are going to combine to become the perfect image, and that is what happens to be the most important factor as far as the picture-taking process is concerned.

An old man walking on a stage
Image: Street Hunters

Dynamic Ranges Of Common Devices

Now when you are talking about understanding dynamic range, this is something that you might have a hard time understanding because it is not something that can be summed up in a few words.

But we have talked all we could about dynamic range, so the next logical step is knowing the dynamic range of common devices.
This is important because when you are taking pictures, might not have the proper idea about the dynamic range of the device you are using.

Well, to put it simply, most of the modern cameras have a maximum of 15 steps of dynamic range, however, the more affordable options have 10 steps of dynamic range.

However, the topic of dynamic range and understanding the working that goes into is a lot more complicated and can have a separate book written on it.

Therefore, until you are doing it for research purposes, you can find the answers in the official product spec sheet of whatever camera you are buying.

Rest assured, as long as you know how to work with dynamic range, you will have a much easier time understanding how the rest of the things work, and it will not create any issues.

A CCTV camera with dynamic range implementation
Photo: VARinsights

The HDR – High Dynamic Range

Now that you have learned almost everything basic about what dynamic range is all about, the next step is to start understanding what HDR or high dynamic range is. I know these two sound a lot similar, but are inherently different, and therefore, it is wiser that you know more and more about these. After all, not doing your research could lead to a lack of knowledge.

High dynamic range is a way of introducing more dynamic range into the photos or pictures; the principle or how HDR works is a lot simpler than one might think. For starters, HDR photos comprise three photos that are taken at different exposures.

These photos are then combined, an and HDR image is produced, which, as you may have guessed, has a lot of dynamic range as compared to a single photo. In the older days, cameras were not capable of processing HDR images on their own, so you had to piece together the images in post-processing.

However, modern-day cameras can do it on their own without the need for an additional piece of software. Additionally, to view HDR content, you also need to have devices that support HDR standard to begin with.

Most modern smartphones, as well as televisions, are HDR supported, so that is not going to be a lot of issues. At the same time, a lot of people around the world claim that HDR is just a gimmick, and it is not going to do much for anyone. However, that is not the case.

As someone who has been taking photos for as long as I can remember, HDR exists and can make a lot of difference. However, it is not required in all situations, and that is what is more important.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

#Q1- Is more dynamic range better?

Answer: Yes, in most cases, the more dynamic range you have, the better control you will have over the images that you are taking or the videos that you are shooting.

#Q2- What is the definition of dynamic range?

Answer: Dynamic range is essentially a measure for the difference between the darkest parts of a picture to the lightest part of the pictures or the difference between the darkest shadows or brightest highlights.

#Q3- What is the dynamic range of a camera?

Answer: A dynamic range of a modern DSLR or a mirrorless camera tops at 15 stops. However, some older cameras have a dynamic range as high as 10 stops.

#Q4- Does ISO affect dynamic range?

Answer: Yes, higher or lower ISO can influence the dynamic range by a lot. Therefore, it is generally suggested that you are taking pictures at a lower ISO, so it gives you more flexibility in post-processing without ruining the image.

#Q5- How is the dynamic range calculated?

Answer: There are different methods of calculating dynamic range based on the application, in photography, dynamic range can be calculated as by the ratio of maximum light intensity measurable (at pixel saturation), to minimum light intensity measurable (above read-out noise).

We understand that the concept of dynamic range might confuse a lot of people.

As a photographer, I have found myself in a similar situation as well, but at the end of the day, you have to understand that it is not that difficult, to begin with. You can easily make the most of the situation.

Thankfully, if you are consistent with the process, understanding the dynamic range is not going to be difficult at all. It is a fairly simple and straightforward process that one can take part in, and you will do just fine once you have understood it.

It will allow you to take great pictures, and well, it is always an extension of the skill that you can constantly use.

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Ward Carver 1

Ward Carver 1 is used to trim excess materials and carve anatomical features. Both flat spear-shaped blades are 13.0 mm long and 1.9 mm wide. One tip is set at 20 angle and the other is set at a 55 angle to the center line of the handle.

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Carvers have a flat profile and a spear-shaped blade which is sharp around the entire periphery. They are used for trimming flat surfaces and carving anatomy. Carvers are dental instruments with a sharp-edged working end which is commonly used to remove excess material and also contour surfaces and carve anatomy. All are made of stainless steel. The tips are then hardened and hand-polished to achieve smooth, scratch-resistant surfaces which produce smooth and accurate restorations all time. Carvers have unique, large diameter light weight handle for maximum comfort, increased control and reduced hand fatigue.

Technical Specifications:

Material: German Stainless Steel

Tip Material: German Stainless Steel

Handle: Hollow 10mm

Application: Restorative

Rusting Prevention Procedure: Passivated

Ultrasonic Cleaned: Yes

Surface Finish: Satin/Dull Finish

Usage: Left Hand or Right Hand

Sterile or Non-Sterile: Non-Sterile

Disposable or Reusable: Reusable

Tests Performed: Performance Test, Shape Test and Boil Test.

Latex or Latex-Free: Latex-Free

Packing: Individually Packed

QC Passed: Yes

Weight 0.049999940537 kg


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Who We Are

Welcome to Orchard Hill Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center, a warm and welcoming 134-bed skilled nursing facility serving the community’s healthcare needs with distinction.

Conveniently located in Towson, Maryland, Orchard Hill offers the best in subacute rehabilitation and skilled nursing care with a primary goal of returning patients home as soon as possible. Today, under new ownership, we are excited to infuse our nursing home community with Marquis’ progressive rehab approach.

Dedicated to the post-hospitalization care of individuals recovering from joint replacement, cardiac, pulmonary, neurological, and other acute medical conditions, our excellent inpatient rehab program features physiatry driven rehab programming, daily therapies, state-of-the-art equipment and an array of amenities to enhance your comfort.

Our specialized programming includes our revolutionary Care Navigation™ model and URGENT SNF™ Stabilization Program.

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Conference Flash-Backs
Drunkenly abusing John Hayes of Cornerstone. He really was very sporting and good humoured, though still can’t quite grasp how he can credibly self-describe himself as a “Cameroonie”.

Calling David Davis “Basher” to his face. He gave me that “I could kill you with my bare hands” look.

Meeting various victims of this blog. Excruciating.

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+++ US Treasury Bills Trade at Negative Yields +++
For the first time in history, not even in 1929, $27 billion of three-month bills were sold at a discount rate of 0.005% and are now trading at negative yields. Investors will get back less than they pay for them for the security of actually being repaid. That shows real fear in the markets.

Unfortunately British Gilts are not considered such a safe bet…

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June 3, 2017 - 09:00am to 11:30am

Hosted by: Oregon Zoo Foundation

An exclusive event for Sponsor and Conservation Circle Giving Society members!

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If you have questions regarding this event, please contact:

Katie Ash
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How to Deal With Race-Day Crowds

running race

No matter if you're about to compete in your first 5K or your third marathon, dealing with crowds on race day can be an exhausting experience. There's more to completing a race than simply crossing the finish line, as it requires navigating several mandatory checkpoints that can not only be tedious, but both physically and mentally stressful. Throw peak crowds into the mix, and you may find yourself on your feet for way too long when you should be relaxing back at the hotel room—ultimately impacting your energy levels and performance once the gun goes off.

Don't worry—with a few premeditated steps, navigating crowds on race day doesn't have to be a hassle. From parking and checking in, to navigating aid stations and the finishing chute, here are a few tips on how to deal with crowds on race day.

Parking can be tricky when thousands of athletes and their families all converge on the same event, but note there are a few ways to dodge this hassle in the morning.

First, finding a hotel within walking distance to the starting line is a great option. Second, consider carpooling with other athletes or finding a ride share option to drop you off (but note these services can be spotty around early start times). Lastly, look at your athlete guide in your race packet and figure out where easily accessible parking lots are, then scout these lots the night before and arrive as early as possible.

There will be traffic on race day, so consider having a family member drive so you can jump out of the car if needed.

Race Expo/Check-in

Ah, the check-in process. This is the required step where race organizers and sponsors try to "upsell" you on often unnecessary products (pro tip: It's never a good idea to purchase new shoes or nutrition the day before the race, or at least using those new purchases on race day). The race expo can be sensory overload, with tons of competitors and vendors populating the showroom floor at loud flashy booths designed to capture your attention around every corner. It also doesn't help they're generally laid out like IKEA, where you have to walk through the entire expo to find the exit.

To limit your exposure to some of these crowds, try to pick up your bibs once the expo opens or right before it closes to save yourself from standing in lines. Also, stay away from booths—find the check-in area and make a beeline for the exit. If you have an especially selfless race Sherpa, you can lend them your ID and have them pick up your bib and packet for you (and have them listen to the athlete debrief).

If you decide to go yourself, we encourage you to wear your compression garments and bring a bottle of water to stay hydrated and limit the effects of being on your feet before race day.

Porta Potties

Most race organizers do their best to order enough porta potties for the projected turnout, but there will always be a line in the hours leading up to the race. The best way to avoid even using these in the first place is to wake up several hours before the start and eat a small breakfast (and drink your coffee) to give your body time to do its business before you leave.

If you've already left and still need to go, look for a nearby coffee shop or park facility and go there, or (warning, it's about to get a little gross) keep a disposable "brief relief" bag in your car and dispose of your waste in a nearby trash can.

If you have time to wait in line, be sure to keep warm and stay moving, and don't forget to bring your own toilet paper.

On the Course

Unless you start way in the back, there's no way to "avoid" crowds in the starting chute or in the first few miles once the gun goes off. The best way to keep yourself from being hindered by athletes blocking you from the front (or have athletes cut in front of you from behind) is to stage yourself with the appropriate pace group. If you know you're going to run a four-hour marathon, find the pacer (and their sign) and stage yourself with that group.

Once out on the course, look ahead for any bottlenecks and keep to either one side or the other to limit how many surges you'll have to take to pass a fellow competitor. Don't forget to yell "on your left" as you pass, too.

Aid Stations

Aid stations are another place were crowds can be especially problematic. To eliminate this variable altogether, some athletes prefer to carry all their nutrition and hydration with them. This tactic can work through the half-marathon distance, but generally marathon runners will take advantage of the on-course nutrition, especially later in the race.

If you do stop, be sure to slow down as you approach and check what's available. Some sections only offer sports drink or water while others have gels, bananas or blocks—and if the aid station is on both sides of the road, opt for the side with less athletes. Also, don't stop at the first table with everyone else, run to the end of the aid station and grab what you need from a less-busy volunteer.

Finishing Chute

You'll often find that as athletes cross the finish line, they'll stop. It makes sense, but look ahead and see where athletes are in the finishing chute and adjust accordingly. If you time it right, not only will you cross without anyone in front of you, but you'll get an unobstructed race pic from the photographer just beyond the finish line.

Like we suggest with the on-course aid stations, find the volunteer near the back who's waiting around to hand out their medals, and don't stop at the first table giving out food and drinks with the other competitors. Walk a bit farther and usually the same things are offered again (but with no line).

Race Selection

Race selection is a big factor when it comes to crowds on race weekend. A popular race like the Los Angeles or New York marathon will undoubtedly result in more crowds and a more hectic experience.

Spend some time researching a nearby race series, or find a local running group and see if they host any members-only events. Trail races are usually a great place to avoid crowds, as bunches disperse quickly due to the varying terrain on the course. The expo and check-in area are usually outdoors, with less people registering in total (depending on the race, of course).

READ THIS NEXT: 5 Things Not to Do on Race Day

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(Bloomberg) -- The top US official in Hong Kong urged China not to further endanger the laws and values that helped the city develop, saying that the metropolis’s role as a business hub is quickly eroding under Beijing’s watch.

“Let Hong Kong be Hong Kong,” US Consul General Hanscom Smith said Wednesday at a virtual event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Calling his overview a “grim accounting” of the city, he said that “it’s in no one’s interest, least of all China’s, for Hong Kong to become just another mainland city.”

Hong Kong has become one of several flash points in US-China ties, with the city’s current and recently-departed leader facing tough economic sanctions over enforcement of a national security law that critics say undermines the city’s legal and social norms.

Some of the world’s strictest Covid-19 policies, diminishing freedom of speech and the imprisonment of democracy advocates have also alarmed foreign businesses operating in Hong Kong, which historically has served as a key conduit between China’s growing economy and the wider world. Many have begun relocating staff to other cities including Singapore, Seoul and Tokyo.

Hong Kong Must Not ‘Lie Flat’ on Covid, Leader John Lee Says (1)

Members of the business community echoed Smith’s concerns about the challenges posed by shifting legal norms as Beijing exercises greater control over Hong Kong, threatening the “one country, two systems” policy China’s government promised when it took control of the city 25 years ago.

“Hong Kong went from one of the best and easiest places to do business in the world -- and to live, no matter what country you are from in the world -- to now being a much riskier place and a place that’s much less connected,” said Tara Joseph, a former head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong who is now senior director at Strategy Risks, which advises companies doing business in China.

Officials in Hong Kong and Beijing dispute that characterization, though they have signaled some acknowledgment that the turmoil of recent years has taken its toll.

In a rare visit last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping last week urged Hong Kong to shore up its economy after an era of “chaos” that included the outbreak of Covid-19 and pro-democracy protests that were reined in by implementation of the national security law and coronavirus restrictions.

Hong Kong’s New Leader Stresses Cautious Opening on Virus

The city’s new chief executive, John Lee, has vowed to sustain Hong Kong’s role as a business hub while criticizing democracy protests that peaked in 2019 as “unlawful.” Lee, who ran unopposed for the city’s top job, previously had a key role in enforcing the national security law.

Jessica Bartlett, the global head of financial crime legal at Barclays Plc., said businesses will find ways to adapt to the shifting legal and social environment -- including by relocating workers to other cities. But she said the vibrant business climate in the city will probably continue due to its relative advantages over other cities in the region.

Joseph, of Strategic Risks, also cautioned against the “notion of ‘the battle is lost and Hong Kong is done’ emanating from Washington,” saying that the city “remains an important place in setting an example for US policy in other parts of Asia beyond China.”

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.


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He came back pretty fast

I thought his love fast would last

But again

My heart he may shatter and crash

But it’s always me

He uses to brag

Beginning to believe

There was no foundation in what we had

But the past I have to release

Evolved to whole

From the small piece

That my twin flame

Refuses to return back to me.

By Orisha Sevyn

Divine Spirit | Mother | BS | MBA HR + PA | Spiritual Leader | Greetings! I am here to speak my truth & resonate w/ those who need a little Moore guidance. 🦋✨

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Film & TV Location Tour

Weekends at 12:30pm & 2:30pm
Tickets: £13.50 (£12.50 online), included in admission ticket
Old Royal Naval College, King William Walk, Greenwich SE19 9NN

Book now Plan A Visit

Tours run every Saturday and Sunday at 12.30pm and 2.30pm. Tours should be booked in advance. Please click ‘BOOK NOW’ to select your preferred date.

Join us for a fascinating behind-the-scenes tour of what’s been called “the most popular filming location in the world.” (Empire magazine).

From a starring role as Buckingham Palace in The Crown to 19th Century revolutionary Paris in Les Misérables, the Old Royal Naval College has provided the setting for some of the most memorable scenes in major international film and TV productions. On this tour you will be guided through over 60 years of filming, both outside on our iconic riverside grounds and inside the magnificent Painted Hall. Learn tricks of the trade, how the magic is made and some intriguing ‘behind the scenes’ tales.

Come for a tour and find out:

  • The exact spot where Buckingham Palace was recreated for The Crown (2016 – present)
  • Who saved the world when in 2013 The Old Royal Naval College hosted a crashed spacecraft in a climactic battle scene
  • Which handsome couple waltzed the night away in the iconic scene from Indiscreet, filmed in the Painted Hall in 1958
  • The antics of Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady (2011) and Emma Stone as Cruella in Disney’s 2021 delve into the villainess’ backstory
  • Where it was in the Painted Hall that Nigel Hawthorne became King George in The Madness of King George (1994) watched over by his forebear George I, depicted in the famous painting
  • Exactly the place in which Rowan Atkinson utters the classic line, “Repeat after me, I do take thee, Lydia Jane Hibbott, to be my awful wedded wife,” in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)

Film tours last 60 minutes and are part of your overall admission ticket including entry to the Painted Hall, the Victorian Skittle Alley and other talks and tours. Tickets can be converted to an annual pass either online or at the Visitor Centre on the day of your visit free of charge.