Vigabatrin, now being tested as a treatment for cocaine addiction, lessens obese rats' craving for food. They lose about 20% of their body weight.

A study shows that adults are easily fooled when a child says a real event did not happen, while adults are better at detecting when a child is creating an event and making up the details.

Smithsonian.com is the online companion for Smithsonian Magazine, the monthly journal published by The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The web site recently published a report from Kenneth R. Fletcher about the weekly jam sessions at the Floyd Country Store, a venerable institution in southwestern Virginia. The scene he describes may well be an unfamiliar one [...]

Ah, isn't summer just wonderful? Why, I could lay here all day, surrounded by my little forest friends, and never...

The recently completed film about banjo ace J.D. Crowe is to have its first showing shortly at the J.D. Crowe Bluegrass Festival on Thursday night, 28 August. The film entitled A Kentucky Treasure: The J.D. Crowe Story, has been produced by Russ Farmer with the invaluable help of long time Crowe fans Frank and Marty Godbey, [...]

JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP, NJ—-Veterinary assistant Lauren Millardi, 27, will watch any period film set within a strict historical time frame of...

NEW YORK—Mere seconds after a hotly contested rebound during a game between the vice president's biggest on-court rivals, a mishandled basketball rolled across the blacktop of "the Cage" before being brought to a stop by the wing-tipped foot of Dick Cheney.

EDINA, MN—Frank Noller, married father of two and advertising copywriter for Harton & North, extolled the virtues of family and parental...

Darling, I know we've been together for over 30 years, and we've always promised that we would never keep any secrets from each other. But I think...

Many homeowners are having to remove their new countertops because the granite in them has been found to emit hazardous levels of radon. What do...

The Alexander technique, a little-known type of physical therapy designed to reduce chronic pain, is more effective at reducing back pain than exercise alone or massage therapy, according to a new study.

The U.S. obesity epidemic is gaining speed, with adult obesity rates up in 37 states and down in none. In 28 states, more than 1 in 4 people are obese.

If you want to learn more about the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA), and their upcoming World Of Bluegrass convention in Nashville, you can tune in to Katy Daley’s show tomorrow (8/20) at 9:00 a.m. when she interviews Dan Hays, IBMA’s Executive Director. Dan is also sure to pass along congratulations to Katy who is nominated [...]

Study shows that Cialis, a popular drug for erectile dysfunction, helps ease common urinary symptoms associated with enlarged prostate.

If you have heart disease, don't count on folic acid pills, with or without vitamin B6 and B12 supplements, to help you cut your cardiovascular risk, a study shows.

Longtime readers of The Bluegrass Blog will recall the story of Kylie Chapman which we covered earlier this year. She is the infant daughter of John Chapman and his wife Vickie, who was born on March 22, 2008. John, Vickie and all of The Chapmans soon saw their joy turn to grave concern as when it [...]

When it comes to black and white conversion, there is no definitive method that will get the best results every time. Some use the channel mixer conversion, while others will swear by black and white filter. Other just like the simplicity of the desaturate function. Which one is the best? It depends. This is why I was so happy when Ladislav Soukup from ladasoukup.cz sent me this cheat sheet. Read on to find your best suited conversion in an instant.

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Eric Schlange, who manages the very popular BanjoHangout web site, has recently launched a similar site for resonator guitar enthusiasts. ResoHangout.com hosts an active discussion forum plus a tab archive, online video lessons, product reviews, chat rooms and myHangout home pages for registered users. There are already more than 450 users on the site since it [...]

The Sparrow Quartet will be kicking off this year’s Woodstock Film Festival with a concert. The concert will take place at the Bearsville Theater west of downtown Woodstock, on October 1, 2008. The Sparrow Quartet is lead by Abigail Washburn and features banjo master Bela Fleck, along with Casey Driessen and Ben Sollee. In addition to the [...]

Chase Jarvis put up a rapid fire video going from nothing to product-final in just a bit over three minutes.

So, OK, there is no way to actually do all the things in the video in three minutes. But if you are looking for some quick intro about what is the process behind commercial photography, you are in for a treat.

If you liked this video, you may want to check out Chase's blog. On the top right there is a bunch of more goodies and videos.

Make sure you don't miss out on the next article - Register to the RSS feed or the newsletter.

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If you've been reading DIYP for a while now, you know that I am a fool for home made softboxes.

DIYP has featured all kind of softboxes, ranging from small light weight camera strobe to big studio photography strobes. Some are minutes to build and some are hours. Here is a list of some of the better softboxes we've had here on DIYP:

- The Best Softbox Ever (Image is from this project by Nick Wheeler)
- Two Great Weekend Projects - Striplight and Softbox
- Even Better Softbox Part One - The Build Process
- Even Better Softbox Part Two - The Test Results
- a home grown softbox
- Flash Mounted homemade DIY Softbox

One of the trickier parts of growing a softbox at home is the planning. The delicate work done by professionals to calculate the lengths of segments. The gentle work of trigonometry to calculate the angels. Light-less nights spent in dark basements with calipers.

(Actually it is the drawing of the the
individual pieces before you glue them together that is the real hard task)

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Brian Auer has a passion - old skool film photography. His passion, as most passions are, is contagious. If you have not caught the Film virus yet, Brian came up with a project to help you get some film inspiration going.

The $50 Film Camera is one of those projects that is real easy to get involved in. all you have to do is shoot some rolls of film with a film camera of under 50$, post your pictures, and a camera review and you are in. (Don't forget to submit your review link).

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If you, like me, have little money to spend on big expensive lighting, you can start up your flash photography with a small flash (AKA strobe).

Actually some of those are so cheap, you can start off with a few, or add strobes as you go along. I started with 1 small flash: The Nikon SB 28, added the Nikon SB 800 when I got my D70, and when I needed more light, I added the Nikon SB 26. The SB 26 sells for about 100 USD on eBay and other small flashes like the famous Vivitar 285HV sells for about 50 on eBay and about 80 for a new flash.

If you indeed choose this path (which from now on will be called the strobist path) there are several very useful resources on (and off) the web for you to learn how to perfect your small strobe lighting technique.

I have deep appreciation for all photographers listed below, they all helped me learn and grow to the photographer I am today.
This is why I am shamelessly promoting sharing their recent and not so recent projects.

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The last week was very interesting week on my professional career, I was attending a software conference in Toronto called The Agile Conference 2008. The conference was all about making software better. (Any Agile practitioners here? Give me a shout).

I find that there are plenty of similarities between Agile software development and striving for photography perfection and style, and I intend to share this in an upcoming post. (Don't worry, this will not be a geeky-techie post).

While being away from home I had the pleasure of watching the DIYP Flickr group grow. We are now 2751 enthusiastic photographers, and sharing 2653 picture. Great work. While it feels great to be part of such a striving community, I noticed that the number of photographer is smaller then the number of pictures. That means that some of us are missing on the great opportunity to share our pictures and get ideas, critique and standing ovations from group member.

Here is my suggestion, if you did not submit at least on picture to the group, submit one picture now, and pick one of the other images on the group and make a comment. This is turn will encourage other to comment on your images.

Thanks for making my day great! Below are some of my favorites from the last month.

More Photodumps:
- Having Fun @ The Pool #3
- Having Fun @ The Pool #2 - What a Splash
- Having Fun @ The Pool #1

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