Canon videos show off 70D's dual-pixel autofocus technology

Canon wants to show off what its new EOS 70D camera can do when it comes to one persistent shortcoming in the digital photography revolution: autofocus.

It's posted two videos -- a demonstration video called Handmade and a behind-the-scenes explanatory video about it -- designed to show what the new digital SLR can accomplish with its new Dual Pixel CMOS AF (DPA) technology. Check below to watch the videos.

No doubt the autofocus technology won't work as smoothly in the real world as it does in these promotional videos with bright lighting, carefully arranged sets, and plenty of chances to shoot another take if things don't go right at first. But they're worth watching to at least get a flavor of what's possible and to see a reasonably broad selection of the 103 Canon lenses the company says DPA works with.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57592394-76/canon-videos-show-off-70ds-dual-pixel-autofocus-technology/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=title

July 5 1935 The National Labor Relations Act, was signed into law

The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 29 U.S.C. § 151–169 (also known as the Wagner Act after NY Senator Robert F. Wagner[1]) is a foundational statute of US labor law which guarantees basic rights of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining for better terms and conditions at work, and take collective action including strike if necessary. The act also created the National Labor Relations Board which conducts elections which, if voted in favor of representation, awards labor unions (also known as trade unions) with a requirement for the employer to engage in collective bargaining with this union. The Act does not apply to workers who are covered by the Railway Labor Act, agricultural employees, domestic employees, supervisors, federal, state or local government workers, independent contractors and some close relatives of individual employers.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Labor_Relations_Act

July 5 1934 – "Bloody Thursday" – Police opened fire on striking longshoremen in San Francisco.

The 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike (also known as the 1934 West Coast Longshoremen's Strike, as well as a number of variations on these names) lasted eighty-three days, triggered by sailors and a four-day general strike in San Francisco, and led to the unionization of all of the West Coast ports of the United States.

The San Francisco General Strike, along with the 1934 Toledo Auto-Lite Strike led by the American Workers Party and the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934 led by the Communist League of America, were important catalysts for the rise of industrial unionism in the 1930s, much of which was organized through the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1934_West_Coast_waterfront_strike

July 5 1946 – The bikini went on sale after debuting during an outdoor fashion show in Paris, France

A bikini is a women's two-piece swimsuit designed to provide minimal coverage of the body. One part of the attire covers the breasts and the other part covers the groin and part of or the entire buttocks, leaving an uncovered area between the two.

Merriam–Webster describe the bikini as "a woman's two-piece bathing suit" or "a man's brief swimsuit."[1] It is often worn in hot weather, while swimming or sunbathing. The shapes of both parts of a bikini resemble women's underwear, and the lower part can range from revealing thong or g-string to briefs.

In 1946, the term bikini was coined by Louis Réard,[2] who named the swimsuit after Bikini Atoll,[3][4] where testing on the atomic bomb took place.[5] Reard chose the name bikini because he believed the suit's revealing style would create a stir among people similar to their shock and surprise in response to America’s atomic bombing of Japan the previous summer.[6][7][8][9]

The bikini is perhaps the most popular type of female beachwear around the globe, according to French fashion historian Olivier Saillard due to "the power of women, and not the power of fashion". As he explains, "The emancipation of swimwear has always been linked to the emancipation of women."[2] By the mid-2000s, bikinis had become a $811 million business annually, according to the NPD Group, a consumer and retail information company.[10] The bikini has boosted spin-off services like bikini waxing and the suntanning industries.[11]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikini

July 5: National Apple Turnover Day

Citing privacy concerns, Nixon vetoes state database of workers comp claimants

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon followed through Tuesday with an apparent shift in his position on government retention of the public’s personal information, by vetoing a bill that would have mandated a state database – accessible to employers – of all Missourians who file workers’ compensation claims.

“There is a stark contrast between lawmakers’ rhetoric on the issue of privacy and their record,” Nixon said in a strongly worded statement.

“While professing to champion privacy rights, this General Assembly quietly passed a bill to create – and allow broad access to – a new electronic database containing the personal information of hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Missourians,” the governor continued. “This misguided legislation would have invaded Missourians’ right to privacy by making their personal information available to employers on a government website without their consent. Invading Missourians’ privacy will not grow our economy or move our state forward.”

According to Nixon’s staff, the governor’s action retains the current law, whereby “workers’ compensation information is available, but only under limited circumstances and subject to strict privacy protections, including requiring the permission of the prospective employee.”

https://www.stlbeacon.org/#!/content/31705/nixon_scanning_070213

Thank You Gov. Nixon!

Debunking The Narrative Of Silicon Valley's Innovation Might

This is going to sound completely heretical to everything Forbes has stood for over 96 years (and The Economist for a few decades longer than that) but here goes: The real innovation engine in the global economy is not the entrepreneurial class blazing capitalist trails through the thicket of government red tape and taxation. No. The real engine of innovation is government.

That’s crazy, you say. One Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs is worth ten suits in D.C. or Brussels. If we left investment and risk capital to the state, all we’d get are bad bets such as Solyndra, Fisker Automotive and the Concorde.

Wrong, says economist Mariana Mazzucato, a professor of economics at the University of Sussex. In her new book The Entrepreneurial State (adapted into a rousing TED talk delivered this week in Edinburgh), Mazzucato argues that long-term, patient government funding is an absolute prerequisite for breakthrough innovation. There is something seriously wrong, she says, with a system that asks taxpayers to take all the risk while the private sector takes all the rewards (shades of what happened in the financial crisis and ensuing bailout). “By constantly painting the government as a big bad leviathan we’re stunting the growth and opportunities before us,” she writes. “If we’re funding all the risks where are the rewards for the state?”

Her case study for myth-debunking is the iPhone, that icon of American corporate innovation. Each of its core technologies–capacitive sensors, solid-state memory, the click wheel, GPS, internet, cellular communications, Siri, microchips, touchscreen—came from research efforts and funding support of the U.S. government and military. Did the public see an iPhone dividend? Not really. The “stay foolish, stay hungry” geniuses ran away with the gains, says Mazzucato, and now the company is under fire for not paying enough taxes or creating enough high-wage jobs in the U.S. Apple’s five-year R&D spending as a percentage of sales has hovered around 2% to 3%, while companies such as Nokia and Samsung Electronics spend 9% and 8%, respectively. Steve Jobs’ real genius was not in developing new technology but integrating technologies invented somewhere else, often backed by tax dollars.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2013/06/13/debunking-the-narrative-of-silicon-valleys-innovation-might/

Made in America: July 4 BBQ Shopping List

This is the weekend many of us will head to the stores to stock up on our July 4 supplies for the summer’s top cookout event. To celebrate the Fourth with a Made in America, union label, check out our union-made list below, compiled from the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM), the LA Labor 411's website, Union Plus and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)

Michael Messina at Labor 411 reminds us that beyond our outdoor feast supplies, there are some other July 4 necessities that carry a union label, including American flags by Artflag and Annin Flagmakers, coolers by Igloo and Rubbermaid, the Weber Q series grill, sunscreen by Coppertone and Bain de Soleil and—punch up Toby Keith on the iPod—red Solo cups. See more items.

http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Other-News/Made-in-America-July-4-BBQ-Shopping-List

TV 'breaking news' reports sound urgent because of coaching help

There's a reason local television newscasts tend to sound similarly breathless, say those who ponder these things.

A major California consulting firm, SmithGeiger, advises its broadcast news clients to inject urgency into news reporting with a set of proven phrases, according to broadcast writing coach Mervin Block.

The phrases, he said, include these:

We begin with breaking news tonight.
This story is rapidly changing.
You saw it here first just minutes ago.
Take a live look behind me.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/TV-breaking-news-reports-sound-urgent-because-4645091.php

Prison ordered for teen who caused fatal wreck while texting

Originally, Platte County authorities and the victim’s family wanted to show leniency to a teen who caused a fatal texting-while-driving traffic crash. Some felt she thumbed her nose at that by repeatedly violating her probation.

In response Wednesday, a judge sentenced Rachel N. Gannon, 17, of Kansas City, North, to three years and six months in prison.

Gannon pleaded guilty on May 31, 2012, to second-degree involuntary manslaughter, third-degree assault and violating the 2009 Missouri law that prohibits motorists 21 or younger from texting while driving.

Authorities said Gannon, then 16, was sending text messages, looking at her phone and listening to loud music when she lost control of her vehicle in September 2011.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/07/03/4327269/teen-texting-while-driving-gets.html#storylink=cpy