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1. What is the 48 Hour Global Film Challenge?
The 48 Hour Global Film Challenge (GFC) is your chance to stop talking and start filming! The premise? Filmmaking teams have just one weekend to make a short film. All creativity — writing, shooting, editing and adding a musical soundtrack — must occur in a 48 hour window beginning [project:filming-starts-date] evening at [project:filming-starts-time] and ending [project:filming-stops-date] at [project:filming-starts-time].
2. How much does it cost?
The registration fee is for the entire team and the cost is $70 USD for early bird, $85 USD for regular and $95 USD for late entries.
3. If I have to drop out, can I get a refund?Yes, you will receive a full refund minus a $20 processing fee. Please send refund requests to: email@example.com
4. When will the 48 Hour Global Film Challenge come to my city?
The 48 Hour Global Film Challenge occurs world-wide [project:label-weekend].
5. What are the films about?
That's up to the filmmaker; however, each team will receive two genres to select from for its movie.
In addition, teams are given a character, a prop and a line of dialogue that must appear in their film.
See Also
6. Who sees the films?In each city, all on-time films are reviewed by a panel of industry professionals and a city winner is announced. Then, the selected films go online where a worldwide audience can view and vote on their favorite films.
7. Who are the filmmakers?
The 48 Hour Global Film Challenge is open to all filmmakers, pro and novice alike. Rules state that all team members (crew and cast) must be volunteers. Most teams consist of film and video professionals. And teams have attracted some top talent on both sides of the camera.
See Also
8. Is there a limit to the number of people on a team?No. Our smallest team was just one person—he sets up the camera then runs around to act. Our largest team to date was a team from Albuquerque with 116 people and 30 horses! The average, though, is about 15 people per team.
9. How long are the films?
The films are short; they must be a minimum of 4 minutes and a maximum of 7 minutes long Short is good. Not only are shorter films tighter and usually more interesting, they are more marketable.
See Also
10. How is the event advertised?
The event is advertised by word of mouth, on the web, and via local press. Local filmmakers and organizations are our most vocal supporters and do a great job spreading the word.
11. What should I do with my film after the competition?Get it out there! Enter it into festivals, play it in public screenings, upload it to websites, get it on television, and show it to anyone you can. Be sure you abide by any restrictions in the Team Leaders's Agreement.
See Also
12. May I show a modified version of my film?
Yes, presuming that the showing adheres to the Team Leader's Agreement that you signed when entering the 48 Hour Global Film Challenge. If it is a modified version of a 48 Hour Global Film Challenge film, please include a title card and a mention in the end credits that say:
The concept for this film developed during the 48 Hour Global Film Challenge. www.48hourfilm.com/gfc
13. Is this a contest and will there be a "Best of" selection?
Yes and yes. One film will be chosen as Best 48 Hour Global Film Challenge Film.
See Also
14. Will I win?
Depends on what you mean by winning. Countless filmmakers over the years have told us that their filmmaking weekend was a fantastic experience. They loved getting to use their creative talents; they had fun with their friends; and they made a film, too! So if winning means having a great time, you've got a very good shot at it.
15. Who judges the films?
We gather a group of film and video professionals to serve as our judges.
These judges generally have extensive experience within the field. We require these judges to be fair and impartial. Our judges donate their time and talent to rate the films.
No matter how careful we are in selecting our judges, judging itself is extremely subjective. So many times, two regarded critics feel markedly differently about the same film—remember the long debate between Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert about Apocalypse Now; remember Pauline Kael's ambivalent review of Star Wars. Similarly, on several occasions our favorite 48 Hour Global Film Challenge film of the year has not even won. When it comes to evaluating art, a lot comes down to matters of taste.
16. Can I or my organization be a sponsor?Of course! Email Mark Ruppert, our Founder, to express interest.
17. Does the maximum length of the film include credits?
No. Your film may be 7 minutes long plus 1 minute of credits.
See Also
18. Are credits in the beginning permissible?
Opening credits are allowed. They do not count against the credit time limit. However, they do count against the 7 minutes of film. Remember, the audience is here to watch, not read.
See Also
19. Are we allowed to have footage under our closing credits?Yes, however, the narrative must end before the closing credits begin. So outtakes, Ferris-Bueller-like antics, or bonus scenes are allowed. But if we removed the credits, the movie should still feel complete.
See Also
20. Are stock footage and photos allowed?Stock film and video footage is prohibited, except as part of a special effects filter. However, if you have the rights to them, then stock photos are permitted. In other words, you may use photos not taken during the 48 hour time period. Note that photos cannot be used in sequence to create the illusion of motion.
See Also
21. Is animation allowed?Yes. However—while you may use still drawings created before the Project—you may not use sequences of drawings created before the Project to create the illusion of motion. Using existing images and 3D objects is permissible, provided that you have full and permanent rights to them. Again, only animation created during the 48 hour period is allowed. And, as with a live action film, you must have all rights to the animation you submit.
See Also
22. What about special effects? What's allowed?You may use special effects that involve any of the allowed elements that you have rights to: still photographs, footage shot during the 48 hours, or footage rendered during the 48 hours. You may also use stock footage if it is part of a post-production effect or on a background screen or television and the stock footage is placed over or under footage that is shot within the 48 hours. Stock footage of people or other performers is not allowed.
See Also
23. May we include our logo that was made before the filmmaking weekend?Yes, provided that it begins the film and is shorter than five seconds long. Note that the logo does count against the 7 minute running time of the film.
See Also
24. Should we shoot in HD? Should we shoot in widescreen? Should we use surround sound?
Your film will be screened for the judges online in 720 High Definition in stereo or mono. So you may shoot in HD or use surround sound, but the film will generally not be screened that way.
See Also
25. Do I need to subtitle my film?Subtitling your film is not required during the competition weekend. However, if your film is in a language other than English, it is highly recommended to add subtitles--especially because the top films will stream online to a worldwide audience. For the local judging, if your film is in a non-local language, if the judges cannot understand your film, they are less likely to give it awards.
26. Does every team member have to sign the Team Leader's Agreement?No, only the team leader needs to sign it. However, everyone who works on the film must sign the Liability Waiver form. See the production documents page for more details.
See Also
27. What's a logline?A logline is a very short, catchy summary of the story, usually not longer than one sentence. We ask you to provide a logline for your film on the Wrap Up Form. EXAMPLE: Transported to a surreal landscape, a young girl seeks a way home to Kansas, befriending along the way a scarecrow without a brain, a tin woodsman without a heart, and a lion without courage.
See Also
28. How do we document public domain or royalty-free music and photos?
Have the person who has the rights to the music or materials sign the release form. In the case of royalty-free materials, this is the person who purchased them. In the case of public domain materials, this could be anyone on the team. Please also include information that shows your rights to the music or materials, such as a license, a purchase receipt, or a statement by the author.


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This is one of my favorite films: I love it unconditionally and without reservation and, needless to say, without a shred of objectivity. I will never forget the joy with which I first watched it, a joy that has never diminished, and the love it gave me for Shammi (also undiminished). Shammi Shammi Shammi! I had seen him in a few other films and liked him okay; but this—this sent me tumbling head over heels, never to recover. His charm and chemistry with Asha Parekh stunned me (and so did she). This is also the first Vijay Anand film I saw, and of course I've gone on to love a lot more of his work, too. And can I say any more at this point about my Helen worship? I think not.
So what do I say about this film, that many have already pontificated on (in some cases, hilariously)? Where do I even begin? For one thing, I am not sure I can really pin down what captivates me so. I watched this again with Beth last evening, and we agreed that there is almost nothing we would change (there is ONE thing I would change, and I'll get to it). Even silliness which might irritate me elsewhere I find enchanting here.
There is just an intensity about the whole movie that I love, and it is palpable from the very beginning.
I don't think I need to cover the plot, other than to say that Rocky (Shammi) is a drummer at a hotel in Mussoorie when a visiting girl named Rupa (Sabina) falls from the third floor to her death.
There is speculation that she committed suicide when Rocky did not reciprocate her feelings, and her sister Sunita (Asha) decides to track him down and Make Him Pay. Of course she meets Rocky on her way, and though she doesn't know who he is, his obnoxious antics don't endear him to her. The first half of the film takes us through their battles and blossoming romance. Rocky soon knows everything, but he keeps his identity from her. The story is punctuated by glimpses of Iftekhar lurking, wreathed in cigarette smoke, to keep the mystery alive; but it's not until Sunita and Rocky are in love that it is brought to the fore.
Still, Rocky and Sunita's relationship has plenty of excitement and intrigue to keep us going until then. And the songs! Everyone knows that RD Burman's songs are incredible, and the way they are picturized breathtaking. And of course, there's Helen.
Which brings me to the ONE thing I would change: Laxmi Chhaya has a reasonably good role as Sunita's best friend Bela—BUT. She doesn't have a dance. "Aaja Aaja" is a song made for her trademark style, too! It's not that I don't love Shammi and Asha in it, they are spectacular and cracktastic—BUT.
Wouldn't Laxmi look PERFECT right in there next to Asha?! I *die* at the very idea.
Instead she hangs with the hockey team (Sunita's friends), as awesome as they are, on the sidelines:
It is a Criminal Waste of Laxmi.
If I had to pick an all-time favorite Shammi song from any of his films, it would probably be "Tumne Mujhe Dekha." He performs it so beautifully, and Rafi sings it with such feeling, that I usually dissolve into tears. I have read that Shammi returned to the sets to shoot this song after his wife Geeta Bali died, which has no actual bearing on anything but adds to the poignancy of this already heartfelt song.
When we do finally get to the mystery, it's suspenseful AND mysterious! I was totally surprised by the ending the first time I saw it. Plus we are treated to Iftekhar as the Inspector, Premnath as Rocky's champion-in-love, Prem Chopra lurking, a jealous Ruby (Helen) and the man in whom my obsession for character actors was born: Rashid Khan.
Seeing him in this, a light bulb in my head went off. I knew I had seen him before, and I had to know his name. Had to, and I stayed up way past my bedtime figuring it out! So you can thank him and Teesri Manzil for the Artist Gallery on here!
Since that first watch, I've learned that Rocky's friend and co-conspirator is played by Salman Khan's father, half of Salim-Javed, and Helen's now-husband, Salim Khan:
I see a little of Arbaaz in there, but not much Salman or Sohail.
So we have an intense fast-paced story, great music (songs and background score both), spectacular sets and scenery, lots of trivia, and a fabulous cast. What else could I possibly want? Oh—superb cinematography! I love the way shots are framed and lit.
Wah! to NV Srinivas for his camera work, and to Vijay Anand for his editing and direction.
Actually: wahs! all the way around, to everyone involved. Nasir Husain produced this, great entertainer that he was, and he spared no expense on the details. Many elements are borrowed from Alfred Hitchcock and it's such a treat for me to see an old favorite blended so perfectly with my "new" love. I will never get tired of watching it, and most especially Shammi in it: he is charm and grace and wit personified. I am a fan of Dev Sahab too, but I'm glad he walked away from this one. It is a classic and memorable Shammi vehicle, not to be missed at any cost.
Updated: I was fortunate to be able to see the half hour of scenes which are missing from the dvd; I detail them here.

subset: commoncrawl


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Honus Wagner Baseball Card Sells For $2.1 Million
A 1909 baseball card of Honus Wagner soldfor a record $2.1 million, the auction house that conducted the sale said Saturday. One of only 50 cards of its kind in existence, the T-206 American Tobacco Company card fetched $2,105,770.50 from an unnamed buyer according to Goldin Auctions in West Berlin, N.J.
Cards like Wagner's helped create a booming — and now largely busted — industry around sports collectibles and memorabilia in the 1970s and 1980s. They also set off a pandemic of guys stopping by yard sales (without their wives or girlfriends) to ransack shoe boxes and rifle through old trunks looking for cardboard gold. Truth: Unless someone had Bill Gates or Warren Buffett chained in their attic, there was nothing quite as valuable in their house.
Known to many collectors as the "Holy Grail" of baseball cards, the Wagner T-206 was one of the few cards of its type to remain in circulation after the Pittsburgh Pirates' future Hall of Fame shortstop asked the company to recall the card. Wagner did not consent to appearing on the collectible and did not want to encourage smoking by kids.
Its scarcity, age, condition and Wagner's accomplishments made this particular T-206 the most valuable baseball card in the collectible world. This Wagner card last sold for $1.62 million in 2008.


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More Stories
Which Saints uniform combination correlated to the most wins in 2019?
A number of NFL teams are debuting new uniforms this offseason, but they're all playing catch-up to the New Orleans Saints. The Saints have one of the league's best color palettes, embodied with a crisp set of uniforms and iconic jerseys. It's a great complement to the city's character, which was reflected in a recent ranking of NFL kits.
Which uniform combination benefited the Saints the most in 2019? Here's the full breakdown, ranked by winning percentage:
"Color Rush" alternates: 3-0 (1.000)
White jerseys, white pants: 5-1 (.833)
Black jerseys, black pants: 5-2 (.714)
Black jerseys, gold pants: 0-1...
26 Saints players earn bonuses for standout 2019 performances
A few good plays can go a long way towards helping an NFL player's reputation, but consistently-strong performance can result in big bonuses in the offseason. That's what many New Orleans Saints players found out on Thursday when the NFL allocated its 2019 performance-based pay bonuses, which are distributed from funds gathered through both the collective bargaining agreement (for all eligible players, based off salary and snaps played) and from the NFL Players Association (for veterans with at least one accrued season under their belts).
You can dig into the nuts and bolts of how these bonuses are paid out...


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David Petraeus and his lover Paula Broadwell used a trick often employed by terrorists as they sought to keep their email exchanges secret.
The CIA director and his biographer had a shared Gmail account and wrote some of their personal missives as draft emails, which were left in a draft folder or an electronic, "dropbox".
They could each then access the shared account and open the other's draft messages, reading them without the emails actually being sent.
Sending emails between two separate accounts leaves an electronic trail, including IP addresses that have been used.
Al Qaeda terrorists began using the technique years ago. It allowed them to exchange information without sending traceable emails. An account would be opened by one conspirator and a draft email written and saved. The account could then be opened by a co-conspirator with access anywhere in the world, who could read the draft email and delete it.
The process meant the information had never been sent in the form of an email, making the electronic trail weaker. The technique has since been copied by teenagers in many countries to avoid having their emails monitored by their parents.
Despite the care taken by Gen Petraeus and Mrs Broadwell in keeping their email exchanges secret, it was precisely the type of trail they were hoping to avoid with the Gmail trick that resulted in their affair being exposed.
FBI investigators were able to use the data trail left when Jill Kelley, a 37-year-old Florida socialite who was family friends with Gen Petraeus, received emails allegedly warning her to stay away from the former CIA director. The data trail revealed that the emails were being sent by Mrs Broadwell from an anonymous email account, information which eventually brought the affair to light.


text: 2nd Arizona crime scene yields guns from ATF sting The Associated Press PHOENIX — Guns tied to a botched federal weapons-smuggling investigation have been recovered at a second Arizona crime scene, according to federal and state authorities. The Arizona Republic reported Saturday that two guns were found in the back of a stolen car in Maricopa last year that had rammed two Arizona Department of Public Safety vehicles. Federal agents contacted the DPS this week and said a trace of the guns revealed they were part of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sting in 2009 that inadvertently put hundreds of weapons bought at Arizona gun stores into the hands of Mexican criminals. The probe was known as Operation Fast and Furious. Two guns also were recovered at a December shootout in Rio Rico, where a Border Patrol agent was fatally shot. A congressional investigation of the program has turned up evidence that ATF lost track of many of the more than 2,000 guns linked to the operation. Attorney General Eric Holder requested the inquiry now being conducted by the Inspector General's office at the Justice Department. U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has asked the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for a hearing as soon as possible on Operation Fast and Furious. McCain, a member of the committee, wrote in a letter that the panel must "ensure further damage from this operation does not persist." According to an investigative report compiled for two congressional committees investigating the operation, 122 weapons have been recovered at 48 crime scenes in Mexico. In addition, an unspecified number of weapons tied to Fast and Furious were recovered earlier this year when Mexican authorities raided a compound in Michoacan state to arrest members of La Familia cartel. The joint report for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Senate Committee on the Judiciary also details how guns from the ATF operation were used in the kidnapping and murder of a Mexican official's brother. It is unclear how many guns from Arizona made it to Mexico. Operation Fast and Furious was part of a multiagency federal drug-enforcement task force to trace weapon sales made to straw buyers working for Mexican cartels. Three Phoenix ATF agents told Congress that instead of interdicting the straw buyers, they were ordered to monitor sales and track the weapons up the cartel-leadership chain. Agents said that as many as 1,800 guns were sold and as many as two-thirds were smuggled into Mexico after they lost track of them. The goal of the operation was to use wiretaps on the straw buyers to snare high-ranking cartel members. Arizona DPS officials said the Maricopa incident took place in March 2010 when officers with the Motor Vehicle Theft Task Force attempted to stop a truck with two Mexican citizens inside. The driver refused to stop, and officers used their vehicles to block the road. Inside the car, officers recovered a pistol and an AK-47-type rifle. "It was found, after the fact, that the guns were part of Operation Fast and Furious," said DPS spokesman Bart Graves, adding that the weapons had little to do with the actual incident.


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Hello neglected little blog! Miss me?
Turns out, I made plans, and the universe laughed and did the complete opposite. That whole 'less' thing? Yeah, the first half of 2013 has been crazy busy in my world.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I've been working on some super-cool projects and busy is always good for business. But in the grand scheme of things I had time to do, blogging (and actually taking time for me) fell low on my priority list.
So, what have I been up to?
I did some work for a marketing agency where I got to work on some stuff for a couple of car companies. (I wish I could be less vague, but I can't. The most I can say is if you're one of my sisters, you're driving one of those cars…)
I'm working on a total overhaul of a site for a grocer in San Diego. This one I cannot wait to show off, because it is *gorgeous*. Jeff at Tribe Creative did a great job on the design and between us we have pimped the site out to do all sorts of awesome things.
I mentored at a recent Ladies Learning Code Event. I've done a few of the Introduction to WordPress and Introduction to HTML/CSS sessions and they are always great fun. They sell out within a day or two, so if you get a chance to go to one, definitely take advantage (they have events across Canada).
I took a full week off and did absolutely nothing. Actually, that's not completely true. I may have accidentally gotten hooked on Candy Crush, which is probably the most addicting game ever, so I spent a lot of that week playing that. But after the crazy long days I was doing for many months, the sitting around and doing nothing was so needed.
We started decluttering the house. Turns out we have a lot of stuff (not that I'm surprised by that, but holy geez, we have a lot of stuff…), so I'm making plans to sell the big stuff (appliances, furniture) and then donate the rest.
I got plagiarized for the first time. I know I should be more bent out of shape, but the guy who took sections of my company site and used them on his own changed them the first time I asked, so in the end it's now just something I can say, it happened to me too.
I started reading again. When I left publishing a few years ago, I stopped reading books. Mostly because I didn't really have the time, starting a new business as I was, but partly I was just a little burnt out. Then I discovered my library lends ebooks through an app I already have and actually has more current books than the last time I looked and I got back in the habit. Contrary to what I used to read (a lot of romance), I've been reading a lot of biographies (Mindy Kaling, we totally need to be best friends) and non-fiction books, which is a big change and kinda fun. I'm also looking for good books to read, since I'm so out of touch, so suggestions are welcome.
And, in the coming soon part of my news, I'll be speaking at WordCamp Hamilton on June 21st. I'll be talking Child Themes, so if you're in the area, I'd love to see you there!
So tell me, what's new with you?


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- Newsletter 2023.1: Leigh Bardugo, Grady Hendrix, new and returning conventions, new books, and more
- Review: Queen of None by Natania Barron
- Newsletter 2020.1: Voices Rising, Kwame Mbalia, Scott Reintgen, Kim Stanley Robinson, Madeline Miller, and more
- May Newsletter: Zeno Alexander, Valerie Nieman, Lewis Shiner, Free Comic Book Day, Star Wars Day, and more
- January Newsletter: Robin Kirk, Holly Black, illogiCon with Annalee Newitz, and more
Tag Archives: tiltExpo
September newsletter: John Hodgman, tiltExpo, HMLT, Stuart Rojstaczer, Kim Harrison, John Darnielle, The Escapism Film Festival, Scott Westerfeld, and more!
Posted on 2014-09-05 by montsamu
Vol 4. No 9. September 5, 2014: The first Friday of the month has no fewer than five events to pique your interest, and the first week of the month has already brought the first of five six! seven! new books by North Carolina … Continue reading →
Posted in newsletter | Tagged clay and susan griffith, david drake, Escapism Film Festival, james maxey, jason mott, jenna black, John Darnielle, john hodgman, kim harrison, lewis shiner, lisa shearin, matt ross, Scott Westerfeld, Stuart Rojstaczer, tiltExpo, tony daniel, william gibson | 2 Comments


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The navy said there was strong evidence the body of one of two men killed in the shootout Sunday was Lazcano, known as "El Lazca." But it added that more forensics tests would have to be carried out to confirm the identification.
"Information was obtained after the first forensics tests were carried out that yielded indications that suggest that one of the bodies is Heriberto Lazcano," the navy's statement said.
"The Navy Department is coordinating efforts with Coahuila state, and will be awaiting the conclusions of the forensics examination in the case," the statement said.
The death of Lazcano would be a major victory for Mexican law enforcement. The Zetas cartel that he helped found with other deserters from an elite army unit went on to carry out some of Mexico's bloodiest massacres, biggest jail breaks and fiercest attacks on authorities.
Lazcano, who is also known as "El Verdugo" (the Executioner) for his brutality, is suspected in hundreds of killings, including the June 2004 slaying of Francisco Ortiz Franco, a top editor of a crusading weekly newspaper in Tijuana that often reported on drug trafficking. Ortiz Franco was gunned down in front of his two young children as he left a clinic.
The United States has offered a $5 million reward and Mexico an additional $2.3 million for information leading to Lazcano's arrest.
The Sunday shootout came in the rural area of Progreso, Coahuila, about 80 miles (125 kilometers) west of the Texas border, near Laredo.
The navy said it received complaints about armed men in the area and sent out a patrol to check out the reports. Gunmen tossed grenades at the patrol from a moving vehicle, wounding one of the marines. His injuries were not life-threatening.
Two of the gunmen were killed in the ensuing shootout, the navy's statement said. In the gunmen's' vehicle, authorities found a grenade launcher, 12 grenades, what appeared to be rocket propelled grenade launcher and two rifles.
Under Lazcano's leadership, the Zetas recruited more hit men, many of them former Mexican soldiers, and hired "kaibiles," Guatemalan soldiers trained in counterinsurgency, transforming what had been a small group of assassins into a ruthless gang of enforcers for the Gulf cartel. The Zetas also were in charge of protecting the Gulf cartel's drug shipments.
The Zetas finally split from their former bosses in 2010 and have since been fighting a vicious battle for control of the drug business in northeastern Mexico, the traditional home base of the Gulf cartel. The result has been a surge of drug-related killings.
Lazcano "is credited with strengthening the organization ... he created a new structure of regional cells that specialize in specific crimes," Mexican federal prosecutors say in their profile of Lazcano.
The Zetas earned their notoriety for brutality by becoming the first to publicly display their beheaded rivals, most infamously two police officers in April 2006 in the resort city of Acapulco. The severed heads were found on spikes outside a government building with a message signed "Z" that said: "So that you learn to respect."
Even with the death of Lazcano, the Zetas would still be run by a ruthless capo, Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, who has a reputation for being even more brutal than Lazcano. Trevino Morales, also known was "Z 40," has taken on a greater leadership role and has even been reported to have replaced Lazcano as operational chief.
The report of Lazcano's death came just hours after the navy nabbed a suspected Zetas regional leader accused of involvement in some of the country's most notorious crimes in recent years.
Navy spokesman Jose Luis Vergara said Salvador Alfonso Martinez Escobedo was arrested Saturday in Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas. The official said Martinez is believed to have masterminded the massacre of 72 migrants in the northern state of Tamaulipas in 2010.
The man known as "Squirrel" also has been linked to the escape of 151 prisoners in 2010 from a jail in the city of Nuevo Laredo, the recent flight of 131 prisoners in the city of Piedras Negras and the killing of U.S. citizen David Hartley in 2010 on Falcon Lake, which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border.
The death of Hartley drew wide attention as it appeared Hartley and his wife, Tiffany, were on a personal trip when he was shot by Mexican criminals on Sept. 30, 2010. The Hartleys were using personal watercraft on Falcon Lake when David Hartley was shot in the head and fell into the water.
The navy is also blaming Martinez for the killing of the Tamaulipas state police commander and chief investigator on the case, an attack that hampered the investigation.
The navy said Martinez is also a suspect in dozens of killings of people who were buried in mass graves at the same site of the 2010 massacre of migrants. Nearly 200 bodies were discovered in April 2011 in the town of San Fernando, close to the U.S. border. Those two crimes have been the most fatalities since Mexico's federal government launched an armed offensive against drug traffickers in December 2006.


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- Steering wheel mounted audio controls
- Wireless phone connectivity: Bluetooth
- Front center armrest
- Front seats: bucket
- Genuine wood dashboard insert
- Genuine wood door panel insert
- Heated front seats
- Leather upholstery
- Max seating capacity: 5
- Power 4-way driver lumbar support
- Power 4-way passenger lumbar support
- Power driver seat
- Power passenger seat
- Rear seat center armrest
- Rear seats: bench
- Rear seats Folding position: fold forward seatback
- Split folding rear seat
- Compressor: intercooled turbo
- Cylinder configuration: I-4
- Drive type: front-wheel
- Engine liters: 2.0
- Engine location: front
- Fuel economy city: 21mpg
- Fuel economy combined: 23mpg
- Fuel economy highway: 28mpg
- Fuel tank capacity: 15.7gal.
- Horsepower: 245hp @ 5,500RPM
- Limited slip differential: brake actuated
- Manual-shift auto: SelectShift
- Mode select transmission
- Number of valves: 16
- Recommended fuel: Premium Unleaded
- Torque: 275 lb.-ft. @ 3,000RPM
- Transmission: 6 speed automatic
- Variable valve control
- Bumpers: body-color
- Door mirrors: body-color
- Heated door mirrors
- Power door mirrors
- Power liftgate
- Rear cargo: power liftgate
- Roof rack: rails only
- Spoiler
- Tailpipe finisher: chrome
- Turn signal indicator mirrors
- Compression ratio: 9.70 to 1
- Curb weight: 1,734kg (3,823lbs)
- Engine bore x stroke: 87.5mm x 83.1mm (3.44" x 3.27")
- Engine displacement: 2.0 L
- Engine horsepower: 245hp @ 5,500RPM
- Engine torque: 275 lb.-ft. @ 3,000RPM
- Exterior body width: 1,864mm (73.4")
- Exterior height: 1,656mm (65.2")
- Exterior length: 4,552mm (179.2")
- Front headroom: 1,006mm (39.6")
- Front hiproom: 1,382mm (54.4")
- Front legroom: 1,087mm (42.8")
- Front shoulder room: 1,422mm (56.0")
- GVWR: 2,195kg (4,840lbs)
- Interior cargo volume: 714 L (25 cu.ft.)
- Interior maximum cargo volume: 1,504 L (53 cu.ft.)
- Passenger volume: 2,772L (97.9 cu.ft.)
- Rear headroom: 983mm (38.7")
- Rear hiproom: 1,341mm (52.8")
- Rear legroom: 935mm (36.8")
- Rear shoulder room: 1,405mm (55.3")
- Turning radius: 5.8m (19.0')
- Wheelbase: 2,690mm (105.9")
- Compass
- Delay-off headlights
- Display: analog
- Exterior parking camera rear
- Front fog lights
- Front reading lights
- Fully automatic headlights
- High intensity discharge headlights
- Low tire pressure warning
- Outside temperature display
- Parking sensors: rear
- Rear reading lights
- Rear window defroster
- Rear window wiper
- Speed sensitive wipers
- Tachometer
- Trip computer
- Variably intermittent wipers
- 4 wheel disc brakes
- ABS brakes
- Adjustable head restraints: driver and passenger w/tilt
- Brake assist
- Dual front impact airbags
- Dual front side impact airbags
- Electronic stability
- Ignition disable
- Knee airbag
- Occupant sensing airbag
- Overhead airbag
- Panic alarm
- Perimeter/approach lights
- Security system
- Tracker system
- Traction control
Dealer Notes
KBB.com Consumer Reviews
- 5.0
Great Small and Very Stylish SUV
By Marc in San Diego on Friday, May 31, 2019We purchased the MKC Select at a Dodge Dealership after having looked at other options in our price range. We were about ready to leave the dealer because they didn't have a car in our price range that grabbed our attention. As we were walking by I spotted this beautiful MKC that looked like it was in mint condition. It only had about 4,000 miles on it as the previous owner wanted a Jeep and traded it in after only 6 months. Her loss was our gain! We found this car to not only look absolutely beautiful but was very different than other cars in its class. The front grill, back lights, and thoughtful touches were just what we were looking for. The back seats are a little small if you have large adults with you a lot but in our case, we hardly ever have anyone with us. The seats just seem to melt to your body and conform to your favorite position. I personally like the built in Sirius, Navigation, and Connectivity of the car. I use the built -in WiFi that comes in very handy for longer road trips. There is a cost to connect it but it is useful to me. The performance is just great, I have the 2.0L engine which has surprising power. I have the cross-traffic blind spot function as well as the backup camera. I wonder what the parallel parking feature is like? If you are looking for something that stands out and has most of the luxury items you need, this car should be at the top of your list. It is very quiet, handles bumps with ease, and nothing rattles at all. In my mind the only cons are the back seat size, and the smaller gas tank. I can only go a little over 300 miles on a full tank of gas. It gets reasonable gas mileage but just doesn't have a large tank. Other than that, I am happy as can be and would highly recommend this car to anyone!
- 5.0
So far I'm impressed!
By The Mayor on Sunday, March 14, 2021It's good!
- 5.0
Wife loves it!
By Mark on Thursday, February 27, 2020Bought a fully loaded 2019 Reserve model one year ago for my wife. She picked it out after I mentioned this car to her and after we shopped all the usual suspects (Audi, BMW, Acura, Honda, Mazda, etc.). This is the best looking of them all and it is ultra-comfortable. Really quiet ride, softest leather, and very solid feel to the car. The only thing we couldn't get were black wheels, but we had them powder-coated aftermarket.
New Arrivals
2011 Ford Focus SE Sedan
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Quick Specs
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- 2.0L I-4 cyl Engine
2017 Nissan Pathfinder SL SUV
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Or how to Own our Creation, Learn from it and Stand up from it as a process of self-empowerment
This morning I noticed how we have the ability to wake up in stability but at the least movement of my mind assessing my current reality and a process of change and consequence I am facing, I experienced the movement of what I can define as energy in the form of anxiety and nervousness, also accessing imagination as future projections, outflows and potential situations where I would be facing and owning my creation, taking responsibility for a consequence I have co-created.
In these moments I also saw how in my mind, what I was doing is in fact bringing up the same anxiety or nervousness I had experienced in the past, long time ago when having to confront a situation, when I would mostly go into fear, anxiety, nervousness and worry while playing out these future moments in my mind where I would be confronting a situation, walking through the process it will involve and making it a worst case scenario in my mind through participating in these emotions charged to potential outcomes that I have associated with 'worst case scenarios' in my life before.
Therefore I had to stop and ask 'what am I creating in this moment?' because I could see this experience is here more as a memory of my past experience when facing somewhat similar consequences, yet I was re-enacting them again, exactly 'feeling' or 'experiencing' myself as who I was in those precise moments of imagining the worst and making of a situation that yes will involve changes, adaptations, walking through consequences yet in that moment I also actively decided to ask myself: why do I have to be the exact same memory of myself 'back then' when I am not the same person anymore that I was back then?
Here a very interesting point of awareness emerged which is noticing the conditioning of 'who we are' based on memories and past experiences wherein in my mind I learned to associate this kind of 'problem' or 'conflict' with a particular set of responses at an emotional level, which I was recreating to the T this time around.
So I saw how it is my decision to not play out those same experiences anymore – and what emerged was a bunch of justifications, how it is 'normal' to have this kind of emotions in situations like this and how it is kind of 'expected' for me to feel overwhelmed in this anxiety and nervousness – I decided to stop that again and instead focused on reminding me that those experiences I have self-forgiven, I have walked and understood as patterns that I have created before to 'face' things, but I had to now integrate within myself the realization that I don't have to live through this consequence and situation just like every other time before when I had a 'worst case scenario' or what I've defined even as 'worst case scenario'.
This also means that I realized it is up to me how I decide to See and Perceive things, which started from me stopping from the get to my 'usual' past ways of dealing with situations like this, feeling like a victim, feeling 'worthless' or feeling like I had done something utterly and completely wrong and that I was cursed for life – lol. So, yeah that was me facing a point that I created in my life and when it would not work out 'the expected way' I would yes, usually go into blame, victimization, not wanting to admit my role in the problem and consequences. All of that was disempowering as hell, because one can feed up those experiences as emotions up to the brim, and no result will ever come out of that, I can guarantee you, that's how people spend years and years hooked on a kind of worst-past-case-scenario situation and existing in guilt, blame, remorse, what ifs, victimization, etc.. that's definitely not who I decide to be this time in my life.
So, what is empowering is that I was able to make a clear decision to not judge others, to not hold it up 'against' anyone here, but entirely focus on my own responsibility in creating this situation/outflow as a problem, conflict or what I usually would define as 'worst case scenario' in my life, which is also something I am deciding now that I am writing it out to not see it that way, because that's also how we condition ourselves to 'label' things in our minds and accordingly already prepare our 'armor' of emotions that usually go attached to 'worst case scenarios' and I decide to not do it any longer either.
Up to this time of the day, the anxiety or nervousness attached to future projections has come up several times, but I keep standing in that moment in my body and breathing and not even allowing the first 'spike' of the nervousness to 'flourish' but breathing it in, while realizing this is not what I decide to feed and letting it go.
Here of course understanding that I have worked on these emotions in relation to this situation real time when I saw the emotions becoming overwhelming, and from there living out the correction which is to not fuel, to not 'go there' and try and find anything in projecting these future moments – instead I have been reminding myself of 'stick to the moment' so as to not lay out my coming future in front of me as a series of unfortunate events, because surely, that's how we doom ourselves in our day to day if we focus on all the 'pile of things' that we will face, but rather take it moment by moment, breath by breath and this has been a very supportive way to face this conflictive situations.
Another point then and as a title to this blog is owning my creation and realizing that taking responsibility for my part in the creation of this whole outflow comes from the moment that I stepped into the creation of this situation, and all the way through to what is now one of the outflows that I had also considered before, yet 'went into it' because I went into hope that it could function and work out for the best, but here again then reminding myself to not hold on to a potential so much if actions are demonstrating more than intentions the reality of things.
So, in my case then it is about reminding myself, actively, in every moment that an experience of sadness, sorrow, an experience of failure emerges in me, I remind myself that I have created this outcome, therefore there is no point in experiencing more about it, I can only focus on the next steps to create solutions.
Thus in owning my creation, my consequence I also empower myself in not depending on something or someone for me to stand up and be directive in my experience, because I don't blame others or I don't go into only seeing 'the problem' only and keep myself reacting to it – instead I understand that I can change my experience through it, that it doesn't' have to be as how 'everyone faces conflicts' in their lives and that this is again supportive in my life as I can only ever learn from my creation and take responsibility for it, to again consider these play outs and consequences for my life and what I decide to create for myself.
Here also then as I write that, a slight anxiety comes as changes are ahead, however again that is only based on a memory of how I used to always 'face' situations of change, of the unknown, or stepping out of a comfort zone, yet what do I know? I create my future in every moment that I am living here, there is no 'future' in fact guaranteed out there so in fact it is a series of decisions of what I do or don't do on every moment. I am also aware that no matter what, I have my self-trust, my self-awareness, my ability to discern and expand myself as it may be required.
Here then a very cool suggestion I got is to not only see the problems, conflicts or loss as 'all the negative' that we are having to change, correct, align and let go of, but also at the opportunities that emerge from it, what I gain as a process of growth with it because nothing in our lives, not even those 'mistakes' that we could hold us captive in blame for ages, are 'in vain' – we decide to make them 'in vain' if we don't learn and grow from experiences, and we repeat the same and same and same over again.
Therefore I decide to also learn from my creation, to own it, to walk through it from its beginning to its end, and at the same time go walking through the challenges it will bring and see these challenges not as 'difficulties' but as opportunities to grow as well.
This is then what also 'sets us free' in owning our creation, in taking responsibility for what we've done and become, that we at the same time recognize our ability to change, to adapt, to expand, to grow and ultimately that's what life is really about, whether we happen to like it or not, lol, the only thing that is certain is constant change and we can decide whether that change is for the best or for the worst, up to us yet, I also see that whenever 'big' consequences hit our doors, it is also an opportunity for growth.
So, I'd say it's time for us to learn to approach problems, conflicts, consequences or so-called 'worst case scenarios' in absolute self-responsibility, willingness to learn from it and stand up from it. That's the kind of decisions that I know! First hand, we are not 'naturally' doing or 'comfortable' with, and I noticed a load of memory baggage as reasons why I should be in a very bad emotional experience right now, but I decided to challenge that and at the same time work with whatever it is still coming out in my mind and so physical experience, because it also just won't stop coming out, but I can definitely change who I am in relation to what 'pops out' and remain directive, take it breath by breath, moment by moment, and that's how we can liberate ourselves from 'the burden' while at the same time not escaping or evading the consequence or point to change and walk itself, but remaining self-directive as one walks the consequence and at the same time seeing it as a point of self-change and self-growth.
Thanks for reading.
Recommended audios:
- Gift Yourself Responsibility – Reptillians – Part 489
- Projection Possessions – Part 193
- Decision Making 101 (Part 1) – Reptilians – Part 156
- Decision Making 101 (Part 2) – Reptilians – Part 157


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Memory Lane
Here is a photo of Trey Ratcliff and Danny Levin that I took about five years ago. Danny and I were on one of Trey's New Zealand photo adventures.
That seems like such a long time ago, but I still have a ton of photos and memories. I shot this on the original Sony A7R which was relatively new at the time. Now, I'm on the third generation of that camera, but I still own the original. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.
Actually, I processed this with the latest tools. In this case I Aurora HDR 2019 and Luminar 3. Those are also the third generations from Skylum, and I've been using them for three or four years now. Every time they come out with new versions I go back and find old photos like this to process. When I do that, it's like taking a trip down memory lane.
Old Queenstown Bridge
This is the bridge where Lake Wakatipu ends and enters the Kawarau River. Or, at least it was. Since I took this, they built a new bridge that's not nearly as photogenic.
I took this on my first day in New Zealand as I was walking around getting the lay of the land. The bridge was next to the hotel. I must say, that trip was probably the most fun I've ever had. It was a photography workshop with Trey Ratcliff, and it was a doozy. Everything, from the scenery to the food was over the top.
I've been looking at some of the photos I took while there and am post-processing them with the newer software. At the time I was using the A7R which was relatively new at the time and, the choice of lenses was limited. That was two generations of A7R ago, and the RAW files are holding up quite nicely. But boy, what I could do now with the newer camera. Without a doubt, I very much want to go back.
Queenstown Sunrise
Nearly five years ago I flew to Queenstown New Zealand to participate in a workshop with Trey Ratcliff. Due to jetlag, I woke up on the first morning at an ungodly hour. But after a couple of hours walking around the hotel, dawn began, and we had the most amazing pink sky. It was an excellent start to a week of photography.
I've had this in my backlog for a very long time. The biggest challenge was that the sky was so red and orange that it did not seem real. In the original RAW images, it looks like I photoshopped the colors. To make it seem a little more realistic, I've desaturated the glow. Usually, it's the other way around; I might saturate or add vibrancy to give a photo a little extra pop. Not this time.
In the grand scale of things, five years is not a long time, but for me, it feels like a lifetime. It was a life-altering trip; it moved me in ways I can't even begin to describe. I had such a fantastic time that it almost didn't seem real. Life is rarely perfect, but that week came about as close as I've ever known. And it all started on the morning of this sunrise and continued building from there.
Old Photos New Software
This is an HDR image of the fall colors that I took four years ago in New Zealand. It was the first morning of a five-day workshop with Trey Ratcliff. In the southern hemisphere, April is in Autumn, so the leaves were turning.
I had recently purchased the Sony A7R and now, four years later, I'm still impressed with the images. Since that time Sony has created two new generations of that camera so I now use the third generation A7R III. Also, since that time Trey and Skylum introduced HDR software known as Aurora HDR. Now Aurora is in its second or third generation as well. As a result, I'm revisiting these old photos with the new software. The software has improved to the point that it's very easy to make old photos look amazing.
Four years seems like such a long time, I would go back in a heartbeat. For a photographer, New Zealand is a dream. But I did take thousands of photos while I was there so even if I don't get back right away I still have these photos to look at and enjoy.
Outside of My Comfort Zone
At the time I took this shot I was way outside of my comfort zone. This is a shot I took just before landing on a mountaintop in sub-zero temperatures while in New Zealand. In this case the scale is difficult to convey because there is nothing to use for reference. However the copter landed on the icy plateau on the upper left and it would look like a small toy if we could see it here.
I remember this stop in particular because I walked a little ways down that slope on the left. It was nothing but ice and the incline increased with each step as it dropped into the abyss. I realized that just in time and froze in my tracks then took several steps backward until my footing was sure and the panic subsided.
We landed in spots that were pretty much inaccessible save for experienced climbers. As it turns out our pilot was a mountain climber and used his knowledge of the area to choose our landings. In fact, he had been up in the area on foot a short while before. Some of the peaks seemed to me nearly impossible to reach and I was always looking for a route down should we get stranded. In places like this I'm not sure what options there would have been.
Despite the extreme landings I was so occupied with capturing landscape images that I had no time to be afraid. It's only on reflection from the comfort of my home that thoughts of potential danger return. Certainly I had the same thoughts on that day as well, but they were crowded out by the task at hand and the rare opportunity to capture these images. In reality the pilot was super competent and never put us in any real danger. Lucky for me he was well within his own comfort zone.
Slopes of Mount Bonpland
This is another image I took from the slopes of Mount Bonpland in New Zealand. This location is above the northern tip of Lake Wakatipu. It was one of the last stops before heading back to the airport. We started early with subzero temps high up on the peaks and as the morning progressed and we headed to lower elevations we were peeling off the layers.
We made so many stops I can hardly remember them all save for the photos. The excursion was based on engine time so on some stops we'd jump out while the pilot kept the engine running, this was one such stop as the pilot was still at the controls up on the right. At other stops he'd cut the engine so that we had a little more time to explore and compose shots.
How I know where I was seemed nothing short of a happy miracle. I have an app on my iPhone called "gps4cam" that tracks GPS coordinates and then syncs them up with the photos using the image timestamp. I say it was a happy miracle because I wasn't sure if it worked out of cell tower range. It does indeed because it uses the GPS receiver in the phone. So I ended up with exact locations of all our landings. That's invaluable especially when I'm in areas I've never been before and want to review it later.
About three hours after leaving we returned to the airport. I'd taken about fifteen hundred images and seen many things I never imagined. The next time I go back I'd like to do something similar; it's hard to imaging a better opportunity for a landscape photographer. Now if I could just manage to get back to New Zealand sometime soon.
Bucket List
Every now and then I like going back to look at my images from New Zealand. I was there a little over three years ago but it now seems like an eternity. But having those images brings back some of that magic. I find myself using the word "magic" a lot when describing the southern island of New Zealand. There is something about it that evokes a sense of wonder. You should put it on your bucket list, especially if you like natural beauty.
This is one of the many helicopter landings I made on the last day. I spent the morning shooting images of the Southern Alps and then flew home that afternoon.
I'm standing next to the oddly named Lake Unknown, which is on the southern slopes of Poseidon Peak. The mist on the left is from a light rain shower on the far side of the lake. In these mountains there are microclimates that vary from blizzards to light rain to sunshine. As we approached from the north we could see a rainbow through the shower, it was surreal; that's another word I use to describe New Zealand.
The last time I was in the mountains was on a cruise to Alaska. I think there are two types of people, mountain people and ocean people. In Alaska you can be both at the same time if you live by the coast. Even though I live by the ocean in Florida I think of myself as a mountain person. I enjoy both but I need to see the mountains once in a while to keep sane. While I was in New Zealand I got a large dosage of rugged mountains took thousands of photos. Now, if I go too long without seeing the mountains I can look at the photos and remember what it was like. And then I start to wonder if I might redo one item on my bucket list. That's allowed isn't it?
Mount Alfred from Kinloch
This is a view of Mount Alfred from up the side of another mountain in Kinloch, Otago. The type of wide angle lens I'm using makes Mount Alfred appear far off and small, but in reality it is quite a bit larger. I got here by helicopter and was just one of a dozen spots chosen by our pilot from Over The Top - The Helicopter Company in Queenstown, New Zealand.
It's been a while since I looked at my New Zealand photos. However I've recently been playing with a new tool for processing images called AuroraHDR 2017. That prompted me to go back and get some older photos and see what I could do. I'm pleasantly surprised with the results. In this case I processed one RAW image rather than three combined. It works well either way and normally I'll combine two or three for a true HDR image.
On this excursion we started off around seven in the morning and the temperature was downright cold, it was below freezing. On top of that we flew above the mountains with the doors off. The combination of layers and adrenalin kept me warm until the sun rose. Within a few hours we were on this mountain side and the weather had warmed up considerably, most of the heavy layers were peeled off, yet the adrenaline was still flowing due to the amazing vistas and sights.
Processing an old image with new software is a good way to go back in time and reminisce an awesome day.
Sense of Direction
This is from my trip to New Zealand a couple of years ago where I participated in a photography workshop. After all of the time that's gone by I still have a lot of photos in my backlog to process. Here we were standing on a hill one afternoon overlooking Queenstown. That trip went by so fast I'm glad I have photos to re-live it in little increments later.
Whenever I go somewhere new it can be a little disorienting. By that I mean I'm never to sure which way is north south east or west. I remember having that feeling when I was here and struggling to sort it out in my mind. I love going back to Google Maps or Google Earth to look at places I've been and get a proper sense of direction and location. It's helps me to integrate the experience after the fact.
For instance, with this shot I keep expecting to see the river, but it's to my back as I was facing south. When we headed to Glenorchy, I thought we were driving south but it's actually north. And if all that isn't enough, on the last day I took a helicopter through the southern alps during which I had zero sense of whereabouts. Thankfully I was geotagging my photos, so now years later I can go back and begin to piece the locations together into some kind map of the journey.
Perhaps the sense of not knowing where we are in a new land adds to the sense wonder and excitement. I think perhaps, there might be something to that.
Queenstown Reboot
This is an image I took on my first day in New Zealand about two years ago. As you can see from the colors it was autumn in the southern hemisphere. If I recall I was so happy to see all the fall colors that I quickly processed the photo and posted it a few hours later.
Now when I look back on the image (http://www.justenoughfocus.com/autumn-new-zealand/) I realize my tastes have changed. That's a nice way of saying the other picture makes my eyes bleed. The colors of the original are amped up quite a bit and appear too bright and unrealistic.
And so as I was looking at some of my old photos the other day and I thought to myself, why don't I reprocess this? Since I have the original RAW files I did, only his time I used different tools and techniques I've acquired over the years.
This is a three image HDR that I originally combined in Photomatix Pro, this time in AuroraHDR Pro. Last time I wanted the colors to blast so I oversaturated them, this time I wanted it to be a little more realistic. I think both versions have their pros and cons, (I'm being kind again). The old image looks pretty good as a thumbnail or on a phone, this one looks better on a large screen or print.
Each image has its place, but as I continue to evolve as a photographer and artist my taste change and so do my techniques. This is just another example of that. I plan on reprocessing a few more from that trip, stay tuned.
Gardens Sunrise
A couple of years ago in New Zealand I was here for a Queenstown Gardens sunrise. It's an oasis of nature in the middle of the city, except for one thing. The city is an oasis in the middle of the wilderness. If that sounded like a contradiction it is. Queenstown doesn't need an oasis, it's already surrounded by beauty and awesomeness on all sides. This park is just the cherry on top.
I was here on one of Trey Ratcliff's photo adventures. This was our first day. There were about twenty of us and I really didn't know anyone except one other guy I met on G+. So here we all were on our first morning doing our best to capture the light and such. Now fast forward to the end of the week. Now we are all best friends and feel like we've just been through the most amazing experiences together. Big change from beginning to end.
I've had this image in my backlog for almost two years. I tried a few times to process it but wasn't pleased with the results. This time I have some new software called AuroraHDR made by MacPhun and the very same Trey Ratcliff. Now, what was once a challenge has become easy. For HDR images like this, I find it much easier to get the results I want. I guess the moral of the story is, the longer you wait, the better the software gets, the more you can do. That sounded kind of lame, but you know what I mean.
End of Lake Wakatipu
This is the end of Lake Wakatipu in Glenorchy. I was here a couple of years ago on a Trey Ratcliff photo adventure. I had just switched from Nikon to Sony and so was still struggling with the placement of the buttons and menus. Sometimes I go back and look at my settings and wonder what I was thinking, like this one, my aperture was f10; seems a little high. Maybe I should just forget about all that and just enjoy the scenery. Do me a favor and ignore the exposure settings.
Actually, I was going back to look at my New Zealand photos and found this sitting in the bit bucket. I started working on its just out of curiosity and then got carried away. All the while I was thinking I'd seen this before. Sure enough, I'd processed and posted this same picture about a year-and-a-half ago. My techniques and eye are constantly changing and this time the result was different. So maybe I should have titled it Glenorchy Part 2, ...or some such thing.
Boy, if I could go back in time and make different choices. Well, just a few. Like buying XYZ stock when it was a dollar. Until I invent a time machine I'll just have to live in the present, learn from the past, place one foot in front of the other. Actually, I'm kind of glad I can't go back, it seems the longer I live the less confused things are. So going back and buying that stock might just put me back into a place I don't want to be. Hmmmm, ... tis a bit of a conundrum.
Standing On a Hill In New Zealand
A couple of years ago I was standing on a hill in New Zealand with twenty other photographers. It was early in the morning before dawn and everything was quiet, still and overwhelmingly beautiful. I had to pinched myself to ensure it wasn't a dream. Well, I made that last part up, my fingers were to cold to pinch anything, but I was pretty happy nonetheless.
Its great I have this image because it helps me remember. I wonder what it wold be like if I could remember everything with vivid clarity. I think it would be a double edged sword. Truth be told I'd, only I'd only want to remember the good things, but if I had that memory I might not have a choice. Maybe that's why we are the way we are. Our memories fade so we have a chance to move on, start new, live another day.
I've heard that when we die we have a life review. That we see everything we've done that affects other people. If that's true, then that will be one heck of a memory machine. Or, maybe that's how we remember when we don't have our aging brains getting in the way. Maybe our minds are really that good, it's an incredible idea. I think it's true, we have hints of it throughout our lives and society.
Now if I could only learn how to tap in to my unlimited memory, I could tell you what I had for dinner last night and, I could remember my e-mail password. I had one more point to make but I seem to have forgotten what it was.
I've heard that when we die we have a life review. That we see everything we've done that affects other people. If that's true, then that will be one heck of a memory machine. Or, maybe that's how we remember when we don't have our aging brains getting in the way. Maybe our minds are really that powerful, it's an amazing idea. I think it could be true, we have hints of it throughout our lives and society.
Now if I could only learn how to tap in to my unlimited memory, I could tell you what I had for dinner last night and remember my email password. I had one more point to make but I seem to have forgotten what it was.
Queenstown Gardens
This was taken inside Queenstown Gardens which is situated right in the middle of Queenstown. It kind of like Central Park for Queenstown, yet even as I write that I know it's not a good analogy. Surrounded by mountains, Queenstown has nothing in common with New York City. Maybe a better analogy would be Stanley Park in Vancouver, yes, I think so. Only Queenstown is not as commercial as Vancouver and is many times smaller. So if Vancouver were one-tenth its size then the comparison might be truer; so much for analogies.
I came here with a group of photographers on the first day of a workshop with Trey Ratcliff. We arrived before dawn along the shores of Lake Wakatipu. We then walked and took photos for several miles, ending up here still quite early in the morning. The shadows were long in the morning sun and the clouds were puffy; all elements to consider in composition, which was one of the themes of the workshop. As compositions go, this is so-so, not one of my best. Even so, looking at this now brings back fond memories of the chilly autumn morning.
After about an hour here we loaded onto a bus and headed for a well-deserved breakfast at a hotel overlooking the lake. After almost two years, I still believe that New Zealand has some of the most scenic landscapes on the planet. I also think they make a pretty good breakfast. So if you can put those two concepts together, that amount sums up my first morning.
Remarkable Mountains
This is the Remarkable Mountains as viewed from Kelvin Heights above Queenstown New Zealand. Kelvin Heights is the name I get when I Google it, however the locals call it Deer Park Heights. There is some kind of family dispute over this land, maybe that has something to do with the names, but I digress. I posted this image about a year and a half ago without the clouds but I thought I'd update the image because I prefer clouds in the sky. That morning the sky was rather dull, it was just after sunrise and it had snowed the day before. So, as I do with many of my images, I made it look a little different, the way I wished it had looked. Its like doodling with an image to see what works. For me this is better than the original. At the time I was in New Zealand on a workshop with Trey Ratcliff and I was just beginning to learn how to work with new tools for this kind of thing. I made many friends there as we all practiced composition and post processing with beautiful landscapes like this from all around Queenstown. Since then I've learned quite a lot and have developed a preference for a more imaginative style that at times is not at all realistic. If you've followed my work you know what I mean. I'm more into creating images from my minds eye, using photography as a tool. So, having gone back to this image I think I like it better than the first version which was more true to life. You may not agree, but that's okay, on any given day I might just change my mind and agree with you.
Shore of Lake Hayes
Near Queenstown New Zealand is Lake Hayes which has homes and cottages around its perimeter. Most had kayaks or rowboats laying along the shore. As you can see I was here in the autumn when the leaves were changing and carpeting the ground. Off in the distance to the South is the Remarkables, a mountain range that had already started collecting snow. We were here midday and it was fairly warm without much of a breeze, thus providing a glassy surface to the lake. These still waters are more common first thing in the morning, but in this case we had a rare occurrence in the afternoon.
Skippers Canyon Path
For some reason I never got around to posting this photo from New Zealand over a year ago. This was taken on a narrow road with switchbacks above vertical drops into a canyon. It's one of the most dangerous roads in the world, and even walking can be a little harrowing if you're not paying attention. Case in point, I walked off the road on to this little trail to the right and at the far end slipped on some grass with vertical drops either side. I simply fell on my butt rather than down the cliff so I guess my number wasn't up yet. There was also a mountain bike trail running down the opposite side of the canyon. It looked pretty extreme from our vantage and given my track record I'm probably better off walking than riding a bike, then again maybe not.
Arrowtown Afternoon
The little village of Arrowtown New Zealand in the autumn. There were so many warm colors all around that it seems like they all ran together. Perhaps they did as they imprinted in my brain a most fond memory.
Sunrise at Deer Park Heights
I took this back over a year ago in New Zealand. It was pretty frosty before the sun came up and so when it did we all started peeling off the layers. Nevertheless, getting here early was epic and this moment as the sun rose over the Remarkable mountain range epitomized the natural beauty of the area. Now, I just have to figure out when I'm going back.
Queenstown River Dock
On a rainy day I walked around the Frankton Arm of Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown. This was in Autumn so the leaves were changing. At the higher elevation it was snowing and this location is at the foot of the Remarkables mountain range. So while it rained here, at higher elevations it snowed such that as the clouds cleared we were treated to pristine snow capped mountains. All in all it was a beautiful introduction to a beautiful country.
New Zealand Alps
About a year ago I was in a helicopter over the alps of southern New Zealand. It's been awhile since I posted a photo from there and so it's time to reminisce the adventure. The alps are nothing short of amazing as you can see. And somewhere up there are surely a few wizards or elfs; such as it is in middle earth.
Under the Tree
Two children playing under a well known tree along the shore of Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown, New Zealand. Actually, I don't know if the tree is well known, but its my story so I'm sticking with it. I also imagine the tree is quite happy having children play under it and climb its branches. One of those things I can only imagine but never really know for sure.


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Clippings of newspaper headlines from the Fairfield County organizing campaign. (WNV/JaneMcAlevey)
Fairfield County, in Connecticut, America, was a region where Fortune 500 companies held absolute political power. They'd also convinced the population to be thankful to the corporations for creating jobs and "cleaning up" the area. Fifty minutes by train from Wall Street, Fairfield County had the highest number of unorganized workers in the state — in some sectors, the highest in all of New England. There was an acute housing crisis, and simmering racial tensions abounded. As in much of the United States, there was no organized independent progressive power base with which unions could ally. I was sent there in 1998 by a national labor federation to work with four local unions and experiment with ways to improve the rates of success for union organizing.
It seemed like an almost impossible assignment.Several strategies seemed obvious to me, however. First, we'd have to find creative ways to expose the corporate agenda in the area. Conventional union campaigns would not be sufficient, given the local population's lack of contact with the labor movement. I suggested that affordable housing in particular, and racism more generally, would be the key issues; across the board, workers said housing overshadowed all their other concerns. But before we could get anywhere we'd have to win over the African-American churches, which held serious political and social power, though we knew that they were hostile to unions. Coming into town as a typical labor union wouldn't do any good. To build community power there, we would have to create a movement.
One clear way to change this relationship would be to change our behavior; this meant helping people take on the housing crisis, not just helping workers form unions. No matter how much workers might win in wage and benefit improvements through collective bargaining, the cost of housing would still condemn them to poverty. Representing the interests of these workers meant rethinking the role labor unions might play in such communities.It also seemed abundantly clear that the professional union staff would not be the people to persuade powerful black ministers that unions could be a good thing. Rather, the key to establishing relationships that would be sufficiently powerful to challenge corporate dominance was a transformational organizing model.
Enter Joan Phang. Joan is middle aged, black and a certified nursing assistant. She is also a single mother who doesn't have time to waste, and she let us know it. Idle chit-chat turns her off instantly. She demanded to understand just how she and her co-workers could win, given the poor odds workers stand for forming unions in the United States. Through intensive one-on-one conversations with us and fellow workers, Joan transitioned from fearing employer reprisals to becoming a leader in the effort to unionize her nursing home. We took time to understand where Joan was coming from, who she was, how she understood her place in the world and what mattered to her. This enabled us to persuade her that collective action was the best way to resolve her own problems.
Conversations like these require time, patience, listening skills, deep respect for ordinary people and genuine curiosity. Face-to-face discussions are the foundation to successful organizing; they are designed to help individuals overcome their sense of helplessness and fear, and recognize that a rigged system is to blame for most of their ills, not themselves or their family, and leading to a broader sense of self-interest.Shortly after winning the union election, however, Joan brought a letter to the union office that had been slid under her door at home. It was the kind of letter that a lawyer had written to obscure the real meaning of the words. We discovered that the city planned to first privatize and then demolish Joan's entire middle-income public housing complex, an assortment of 168 lovely, two-story homes built close to the ocean years earlier when land pressures weren't as acute.
The earth under Joan's housing was now considered prime development land.Within days, we mapped all the relationships that Joan, her newly unionized coworkers and, now, Joan's neighbors already had in the area. A rich topography emerged. The workers and public housing residents were members of many of the area churches — the same churches the unions would need if we had any hope of winning the kinds of gains the workers so desperately needed.It turned out that Joan Phang's daughter Nicole, who lived with her, was active in a particularly powerful church, Faith Tabernacle Baptist Church. Nicole was attending a local community college, which made her mom blush with pride. She also seemed born to hold a bullhorn — young, confident and clear in her convictions. Before long, Nicole became a leader in the campaign to save her home.
Nicole speaks with her pastor behind her at a rally. (WNV/Jane McAlevey)
Thanks to Joan and Nicole, we had housing residents, powerful churches and newly organized union workers in one big struggle to improve their quality of life at home and at work. Because the union didn't see Joan just as a worker, but entered into a direct relationship with her and her daughter through the housing fight, Nicole helped to bring along other housing residents and her minister. Joan, like several other residents of the housing complex, developed a lot of leadership ability in the fight to win their new union. They tested their new skills by leading face-to-face, door-knocking campaigns throughout the community, asking residents to come out to summertime backyard meetings to plan to save their housing. From there, they mobilized church-going tenants to meet with their ministers and fellow congregants to discuss the housing campaign. These new union members were developing multiple new identities — union leader, tenant leader, church leader and community leader.In the end, the workers won a tremendous contract, the housing development was saved and the coalition won public funds for long overdue improvements for the public housing development where Joan and Nicole lived.
The kind of organizing I just described is an effort to bring ordinary people, many of them previously uninvolved in civic-anything, into collective action. The people who take part can have no education, little education or lots; they can be of any ethnicity and gender; they cross class lines, including poor people, working and middle class, and the short- and long-term unemployed.Organizing, take note, is distinct from the practice of mobilizing, which is generally carried out by paid professionals to get the already-organized into on-going, strategic, targeted collective actions. Mobilizing is also different from activism — a sort of all-inclusive category of individuals and small groups who are doing something, including things like lawyering on behalf of abused people, letter-writing, standing alone or with a few people on a street corner with a sign, or sending money to Greenpeace. Activism may or may not be in conversation with others. Organizing always is.
This past year, the Chicago teachers' strike was an excellent example of transformational, whole-person organizing. Step one in their struggle was that a slate of radical teachers challenging the old guard of the union had to win the leadership in the internal elections. Next, like in Fairfield County, they had to analyze and understand the power players in their upcoming contract campaign, including the power of Chicago's new mayor, Rahm Emanuel, the former chief of staff to President Obama.For the newly minted progressive teachers union to take on this powerful Democrat was a brave decision. Ultimately, the teachers in Chicago won their strike by first rebuilding their union internally and then building intentional bridges between teachers and their own communities. Teachers spent the summer before the strike systematically reaching out to others in their own communities in a process similar to the one we used in Connecticut. Through this process, they came to better understand the relations they already held in their community. All along, the teachers set out to educate parents and community leaders, not just children, about the coming attack on public education and public educators.In short, Chicago's teachers built a movement, not a narrowly defined union.
By embracing the fight to defend Chicago's kids, parents and schools — and by taking on a powerful Democrat — they provided yet another example of deep, relational, transformational, community-based approaches to union organizing.If more of the union movement understood their members as whole people, not simply as "workers" — and if more civil society groups understood the urgent issues their members face at work and actively support them in efforts to unionize — we'd be well on our way to challenging the global dominance of corporations. There are no shortcuts to building the kind of power it takes to win meaningful change. Face-to-face organizing is fundamentally about developing and unleashing the primary source of power available: ourselves.
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Lunar Eclipse: First to coincide with Winter Solstice in 372 years
The lunar eclipse early Tuesday morning will be the first total lunar eclipse to occur on the Winter solstice since 1638. The Winter solstice is the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
The upcoming Dec. 21 full moon — besides distinguishing itself from the others in 2010 by undergoing a total lunar eclipse — will also take place on the same date as the solstice (the winter solstice if you live north of the equator, and the summer solstice if you live to the south).
Winter solstice is the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and marks the official beginning of winter. The sun is at its lowest in our sky because the North Pole of our tilted planet is pointing away from it.
So, how often does the December full moon coincide with the solstice? To answer this question, let's use Universal Time (UT), also sometimes referred to as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). We do this because in answering this question, it's important to define a specific time zone.
For example, if you live in Honolulu, this December's full moon does not fall on the date of the solstice. Hawaii Time runs 10 hours behind GMT and the full moon occurs on Dec. 20 at 10:13 p.m. local time, while the solstice comes the following day at 1:38 p.m. Alaska, too, will have the full moon and the solstice occur on these respective dates, but in a time zone one hour later than Hawaii.
But both the full moon and solstice do occur on the same date (Dec. 21) in Greenwich, as well across the contiguous United States and Canada.
Prior to this year, there were solstice full moons in 1999 (Dec. 22) and 1980 (Dec. 21).
Interestingly, after this year, we'll have a long time to wait until we have a December full moon occur on the same date as the solstice: Dec. 21, 2094! And even more interesting – just like this year – that same full moon will fall into Earth's shadow in a total lunar eclipse. However, unlike this year, the 2094 eclipse will not be visible from the Western Hemisphere, but will be able to be seen from Europe, Africa and much of Asia. [How to Watch the Dec. 20 Total Lunar Eclipse]
Finally, this raises the question — prior to 2010, when was the last time that we had a total lunar eclipse occur on the same calendar date as the winter solstice? The answer, incredibly, takes us back nearly four centuries.
On Dec. 21, 1638, the full moon was in total eclipse from 1:12 to 2:47 UT. And the solstice occurred later in the day at 16:05 UT. [Amazing photos of a total lunar eclipse]
Once again, it's important to note that this occurred at the Greenwich meridian. For the Americas, this eclipse actually occurred during the evening of Dec. 20, while the solstice occurred on the following day.


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For the first time in decades, there has been a widespread decrease in obesity rates among low-income preschoolers, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Between 2008 and 2011, obesity rates among low-income children ages 2 to 4 declined slightly in 18 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the report said.
The declines were not very large — around 1 to 2 percent — but at least the trend is going in the right direction, said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC.
"Although obesity remains [an] epidemic, the tide has begun to turn, for some kids in some states," Frieden said in a statement. [See: 10 Ways to Promote Kids' Healthy Eating Habits].
The largest drop was seen in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where preschool obesity rates declined 2.6 percent. The states with the biggest declines were Florida, Georgia, Missouri, New Jersey and South Dakota, the report said.
Twenty states and Puerto Rico had no change in their preschool obesity rates during the study period. Three states — Colorado, Pennsylvania and Tennessee — had increases in obesity rates of less than 1 percent.
Some states, including Texas, Utah and Louisiana, were not included in the study because they did not have consistent data, or they changed their methods for collecting data during the study period, the researchers noted.
Nationally, about one in eight preschoolers is obese in the United States, the CDC said. Young children who are overweight or obese are five times more likely to be overweight or obese as adults, compared with normal-weight children, the CDC says.
The new report analyzed information from about 12 million preschoolers who take part in federally funded mother- and child-nutrition programs.
In 2011, preschool obesity rates ranged from a low of 9.2 percent in Hawaii, to 16.6 in New Jersey and Rhode Island, and 17.9 percent in Puerto Rico.
While the researchers could not determine the reason for the decline seen in some states, it may reflect efforts to increase awareness about the importance of healthy nutrition and physical activity, and reduced screen-time for young children, the CDC said. Increases in breastfeeding, which some studies suggest protects against childhood obesity, may have also played a role.
Late last year, it was reported that a few cities and states had seen declines in obesity rates among school children, including New York City, Philadelphia and parts of California and Mississippi.
Despite this good news, more work needs to be done, the CDC said. To improve childhood obesity rates, state and local health officials can make it easier for families and children to buy healthy food, and assist schools in opening gyms and playgrounds during non-school hours to provide areas for children to safely play when they're not in school, the CDC said.
The report will be published this week in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow LiveScience @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.


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Friend says he thought Tsarnaev was bomb suspect
Dias Kadyrbayev says he knew Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sought in attack
A friend of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev acknowledged Tuesday he suspected his friend was involved in the Boston Marathon bombings when he removed items from Tsarnaev's dorm room several days after the deadly attack.
Watch the report
Dias Kadyrbayev's testimony came during a federal court hearing on his request to suppress statements he made to authorities while being questioned about Tsarnaev.
Kadrybayev conceded during cross-examination that he told agents he suspected Tsarnaev was being sought in the bombings when he and another of Tsarnaev's friends, Azamat Tazhayakov, went to Tsarnaev's room at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. The two men are accused of trying to obstruct the investigation into the bombings by throwing away Tsarnaev's backpack containing fireworks.
"You said you didn't know for sure that he was the bomber, that you suspected he was the bomber, correct?" asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Siegmann.
"Yes, that's correct," Kadyrbayev replied.
Kadyrbayev testified Monday that he felt intimidated and pressured by agents who questioned him the day after the FBI released photos of Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, as suspects in the bombings. Two pressure cooker bombs placed near the finish line of the April 15, 2013, marathon killed three people and injured more than 260.
Kadyrbayev's lawyer argues that Kadyrbayev - a native of Kazakhstan - was not proficient enough in English to fully understand the forms he signed giving authorities permission to question him without a lawyer.
Siegmann attempted to demonstrate that Kadyrbayev fully understood the forms he signed. She showed him transcripts of two recorded jailhouse phone conversations he had with his girlfriend. In one, when he is talking about a form he signed giving consent for agents to search his apartment, Kadrybayev said, "Everything that we did - everything that I did, everything that I signed, I signed it on my own," according to the transcript.
U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock did not rule on the motion to suppress, saying he would allow prosecutors and Kadyrbayev's lawyer to submit written briefs and make oral arguments during a hearing in August.
Woodlock denied a request from Kadyrbayev's lawyer to elicit testimony from a state trooper and an attorney who claimed to represent Kadyrbayev while he was being questioned. The lawyer said he had been contacted by the state's public defender agency and told to call the barracks. Woodlock said the issue was not relevant to Kadyrbayev's motion to suppress.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed during a shootout with police on April 19. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 20, has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting a trial in November. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
In a court filing Monday, prosecutors said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told his mother in an email days after the explosions that he expected to die. Prosecutors say Tsarnaev wrote the email before the slaying of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer and the subsequent shootout.
"If I don't see you in this life I will see you in the akhira," prosecutors said he wrote. In Arabic, akhirah refers to the afterlife.
Prosecutors described the email in arguing against a motion by Tsarnaev's lawyers to suppress evidence seized from his dorm room and a Cambridge apartment where he once lived. They say the email indicates Tsarnaev "abandoned his expectation of privacy" because he did not expect to return alive.


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This Very Basic Strategy Is The Best Way To Buy Stocks If You Fear A Market Crash
Investing in the stock market can be extremely frustrating for those who look back on the big rally they missed and nerve-wracking for those who believe the may be putting money into the market at the top.
The S&P 500 has roared 177% from its March 9, 2009 low of 666 to its January 2014 high of 1,850.
Thanks to scary USA Today cover stories and increasing amounts of crash chatter, everyone is worrying that we are at or near a market peak. And this has investors extremely hesitant to buy stocks for fear of a big decline or perhaps a crash.
Obsessing over the risk of a crash could lead to analysis paralysis. However, there is a very basic investing strategy that can save investors from losing too much hair as they make the decision to buy stocks.
It's called dollar-cost averaging.
There's A Correct Way To Buy Stocks As The Market Is Crashing
The stock market is great for investors who have the benefit of long-term investing horizons. It's also better-suited for investors who aren't concerned about perfectly-timing market tops and bottoms.
Having said that, taking a longer term view is good for investors worried that they may be buying at the top of the market.
A strategy called dollar-cost averaging can help reduce risks surrounding an asset falling in price. The concept is straightforward - you invest a fixed amount of money in an asset once every fixed time period. If the asset's price drops, you will be getting more shares of the asset for the same amount of money, and so if and when the price recovers, you will have spent less per share, on average, than if you had bought the shares at their peak, pre-fall price.
Dollar-cost averaging isn't about losing money as the stock market falls. It's about buying increasing amounts of shares at cheaper prices, which means bigger returns during the rally.
How Dollar-Cost Averaging Worked Brilliantly During The Last Crash
To see this in action, we came up with a simplified thought experiment.
We considered what would have happened to an investor jumping into the stock market at the last peak: October 2007. This was arguably the worst time to buy. Our hypothetical investor puts $50 into a S&P 500 index fund every month, starting in October 2007 — the last stock market peak before the beginning of the great recession.
Here is what happened to the S&P 500 starting at that peak:
The index dropped more or less steadily until the worst moments of the financial crisis in fall 2008, causing the full on crash, and only began to turn around in March 2009.
The key to our investor's experiment is that they are staying consistent. No matter how stock prices move, they will always put $50 every month into the index fund.
Based on changes in the value of the S&P 500 index, we calculated our investor's price return, less the $50 monthly cost:
The value of our investor's portfolio as of January 2014 is $5631.87. If they instead had taken their $50 each month and held it as cash, they would have just $3800. So, the price return on this investment — even though they started at the last peak, just before the market started to go downhill — is $1831.87.
This is a respectable 48% return. That averages out to about a 7.6% annual rate of return.
To get another perspective on this, here is the percent gain or loss, compared to taking $50 each month and holding it as cash:
Things start out looking pretty dire, as the economy fell into its deep recession through mid-2009, with the S&P 500 reaching a minimum in March of that year. At the low point, in March 2009, our investor would have been down about 34% compared to just holding cash.
Because human beings are often overly risk-averse, our hypothetical investor might have been tempted to abandon their investment plans during the bad months. That is, they might look at this chart and panic about the drop:
But, if our investor sticks with their plan and keeps putting $50 in every month, even through the dark times, once the market bounces back, they end up doing quite well:
Here's Why You Never Hear About This
Unfortunately, dollar-cost averaging isn't sexy. It's much sexier to sell at the top and buy at the bottom.
Obviously, your returns would be much higher if you win the stock market lottery by perfectly timing the tops and bottoms of the market. However, almost everyone who tries to do this will find themselves losing money and lots of it.
If you are investing for the long haul, and can hang on through watching your portfolio's value drop temporarily in bad times, starting to invest in stocks, even near a peak, may not be as terrifying as it looks. The market has always bounced back sooner or later, so if you can hold on until that later, don't panic.
See Also:
- Ridiculously Photogenic Gold Medalist Cries During Her National Anthem
- A Wild New Internet Drinking Game Had This Teenage Girl Strip Down And Chug A Beer In A Crowded Supermarket
- 4 Personal Finance Questions Everyone Should Be Able To Answer
SEE ALSO: The Odds Of Winning Warren Buffett's Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge Are Way Better Than 1 In 9,223,372,036,854,775,808