” my understand is cats are territorial, each defending their own patch. So how do urban feral cats, that I have seen living in large groups, deal with this?”

I used to believe this myth too, that cats were solitary. We have 4 cats. We started with one that had been abandoned by the bloke up the road when he decided to ‘backpack round Europe’ leaving his pets behind with no food. We soon found our new cat liked having a best friend and they would spend hours sat in the garden together.

Later he found a new best friend (a tabby) and they were so insistent on being together they defeated us and the orig owner of the tabby so then we had 2 cats here.

Then a cat that used to live with the tabby made life so difficult for the humans because he missed the cat that had moved here, that we ended up with 3 cats. These 3 spend nearly all their time together or nearish each other, often grooming each other or cuddled up. Sitting ‘in the vacinity of’ each other also seems a big deal to cats. None of my sample 3 are related and all are castrated males.

The determination to be with other cats they are friends with is staggering. They would go without food and sit out in the pooring rain in order to peer through the door or windows to try to be with each other. It was both pitiful and impressive. I found it quite shocking in a way as I had not expected such affection and loyalty from cats towards each other, as its not the press they are given.

Our 4th cat was a starving stray and not ‘chosen’ by the other 3. He gets on OK with them but its clear they just do not view him in the same close or affectionate manner as they do each other.

Some friends had a similar problem with 2 other cats who moved hell and high water to live in the same house together, so I think cat bonding may be very common.

I read a behaviour book that cats in large feral groups tend to group only because a large food supply – they are there because of the food availability and for no other reason. I would now say that is possibly incorrect and that cats are inclined to group (though perhaps would choose to be in smaller groups) by disposition but are usually unable to form such groups because there is not enough food to permit a density of cats or because humans intervene and hinder living choices.

I also now think when cats appear to not get on with other cats its sometimes just because they, like humans, seek out particular friends they select for themselves and just any old cat passing by is not acceptable to hang around with. This feeds into the territory thing as humans won’t just have any human passing by in to the living room for a sit and a chat, but are quite happy to have close friends do so and cats take a similar view of who is allowed where.

I think (from my own observations) breeding territory may possibly be a separate issue and that breeding territories and size might vary by time of year, as in the UK cat breeding season is not all year round but dictated they the amount of daylight hours – cat hormones such as testosterone plummet in winter and increase as the daylight hours extend in spring.

Oh and for the kill issue, with 4 cats, 3 of whom are young and could hunt with ease, we get maybe 6 kills per year brought home total, but there are always biscuits down so the hunger factor is removed, so they only hunt for entertainment, which they don’t seem to do very much of.

I have a diabetic cat – his life is no different to how it always was – he is free to roam and do his own thing. We would have a problem if he decided not to come back for more than 12 hours but then, things die of all sorts of other issues. I met someone else with a diabetic cat who had been on insulin for 2 years + and she said he was no different to how he had always been. I have also met someone with a diabetic horse.

I think we find it a bit intimidating and harder to adapt to medication issues than the animals do as they have no preconceptions or hang ups.

The injecting etc is worrying for about the first fortnight, then you get used to it and stop worrying about it so much after that.

As long as you can find somewhere to store insulin its no worry to take your dog I would think. Why is someone suggesting he can no longer camp or play on the beach? It could just be suggested for his initial adaping time when there is an increased risk of a hypo? It takes the vet a while to get the dosing correct.

Someone put medical care of pets into perspective for me once – said that I should worry less as the illness the pet has as it might not be the one that kills it anyway – other diseases, road accidents etc. Every day we humans go outside or even get out of bed we face some risks and so do pets. We could keep our cat indoors just in case he wanders off and gets lost/looses an insulin dose. But you have to think ‘would I want to live like that if I was the cat?’ So we let him out and he has higher risk of problems or death, but he has a fun life and thats better than a miserable one.

You can go for a training day at your local agricultural college.

A friend of my dads who was brought up on a farm and therefore VERY aware of equimpment dangers and saftey issues and very experienced with a chainsaw got kick back from the unit he was using and cut into his thigh – luckily the safety stop kicked in. Quick rush to the hospital. He did not cut any major veins or he would have possibly bled to death before he got there.

So yes, you can do major damage. Very easily. Very quickly.

One of my friends went out with his wife and 2 kids on a 1 year contract as a favour to his firm. Rented his house out here, intending to come back to his job held open.

He has another 2 year contract over there now as they did not want to come back and I presume hope never to, so has willingly lost permanently the job held open for him here. Last I heard he was planning to ship his pet sports car over in a container with the rest of the stuff they still had left here. He was on I would guess £70,000 at least here and a nice cottage, so his willingness to move says it all… they love the quality of life there and the people. They all look really happy in the photos they send.

I would like to thank the people who talk about this subject on Singletrack. It helped me a lot in the past to deal with / start to understand someone possibly bi-polar. Since then my next door neighbour and the wife of a friend have also been diagnosed, and again, peoples conversations on here helped with that too as any info that is from real life experience is helpful and constructive.

Hugely grateful for peoples openness and indeed for their bravery. It helps non-bipolar people so much. I hope your lives continue to improve.

Lens sample photo archive
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=107

These might be of interest if you want to see what can be achived:

50 1.8 – photos people have taken with it
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1059085

50 1.4
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=139085

Sorry, had not seen that someone offered a 75-300 until after I posed. Was not trying to be unkind to anyone or to be rude.

I would say they were offering it at a good price if its in good nick.

Just an additional thought – you could get a remote release for your camera and simply set it up closer to the bird table, watch from further away and trigger it. Some of the radio releases are quite reasonably priced now.

I have been told the newer 18-55 mm kit lenses are reasonable optical quality these days but have not tried one myself. Don’t get the orig 2nd hand version they first made as they were not great.

http://www.acecameras.co.uk/asp/web/ph/cat/prodtype/1302/prodtype.asp

To be honest unless you strike lucky at a car boot sale or find someone naive selling a lens well under true price you are not going to get a lens worth having at that price – even ‘cheap’ lenses are dear.

If you are interested in macro photography or close ups you could get some ‘close up’ lens filters to put on your 50mm or a set of extension tubes which would be a cheap way to get more from the 50mm. You could go wider with a 28mm 2.8 which is fixed focal length and cheapish 2nd hand – I have one I really like. Other than that I would save the money and buy something better later – I speak from experience with this, its easy to waste money on rubbish glass and then wish you had waited longer for something better. Read lots of reviews and understand what you are buying before making a choice – remember that the research and shopping is half the fun!

You could also shop around the Tamron and Sigma lens web sites, many of their kit is reviewing very very well and undercuts Canon for price and you could try these manual focus lenses which seem to be reviewing surprisingly well
http://www.rokinon.com

Whatever you do, AVOID the 75-300 consumer level lenses from Canon as they are really rubbish and in my opinion the worst lenses in their line up.

They have opened another restaurant across the building site/car park at the back of the M Shed.

Nice to know the unpleasant restaurant experience has improved, as I have avoided it for several years. Hope the same can also be said of the bike section, and one time, back in the day, the most rude unhelpful staff I and a few other people I know had come across in years.

Chewkw – thanks for the refs.

Bit wary of using used engine oil as I believe its supposed to be carcinogenic.

In what proportions… and would the financial times be good enough?
Please advise 🙂

I suppose I am less curious about the celebrities than the fact that so few everyday people seem to question the actual source of celebrity quotes. People seem to take them at face value, social chat, rather than just part of the publicity mill of staying in the limelight or getting paid to mention products. Its interesting that people are so trusting.

I use Ghostery add on with Firefox (and also NoScript). I have found it to be very good. What it reveals about how we are spied on is alarming though. At the moment it has a block list of over 1000 different tracking programs trying to spy on what people do on the internet and which it seeks to block from doing so. Terrifying really – the Guardian newspaper always comes up as one of the worst as it constantly gets caught out by NoScript and Ghostery – loads of tracking every time you look at one of the papers pages. Unless you load protection programs you just don’t realise the scale of the problem.

When a major photo chain went down the pan several of their staff posted on forums. Many of the staff said management really pressurised them to sell memory cards and accessories to customers at massive markups compared to alternative suppliers. They also said they were encouraged to blatantly lie to customers about compatibility etc to force the sale.

It was not just a recent policy in my opinion as I used to stand in the queue at the same shops about 15-20 years ago, listening to the sales people telling blatant sales pitch rubbish to the less camera educated customers. I was relieved when a different brand of shop opened I could move to as a customer, as no internet shops back then.

Sorry Cougar, did not mean to sound ungrateful. Its not been a good day for me so bit short tempered with the new upgrade. When I started doing the internet search and seeing the hoops to jump through just to get rid of a poor design element it was a bit the final straw to the day really.

Appreciated you helping. Maybe I will feel more up to playing with the program later in the week.

More info about work rounds here
http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57577412-285/getting-to-know-the-new-firefox-download-manager/%5B/url%5D

I think I will just stick with the older version for now as I had no issues with it.

Ah, I am not the only one complaining
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2682857

Thanks scaredypants. If I remove the toolbar green arrow button (see no other way of disabling it yet) how can I get the show all downloads to display still? Or will it keep flashing the green arrow regardless of removing it from the tool bar?

I got so annoyed I reverted to prev version so cant test it now.

Wish it just flashed in the toolbar or something instead of intruding right into the page.

Its not so much that its staying, its that its flashing a lot. I download a lot of tiny files so it appears for a new download every time I pick out the new file to save to drive – every couple of seconds or so, due to my usage/manual triggering of downloads.

Oh, so pleased its not just me that thinks its rubbish. I am not usually impatient with new programs but I just saw it and knew it would drive me nuts seeing it all the time.

Well, it could well be me, but I could not get the download window, just the irritating arrow.

I reverted version back to 18 as I download a lot of small files and its already driving me nuts with the green flashing. Thanks for an answer by the way, appreciated.

If control J works on v20 let me know as I have reverted to the previous version of Firefox for now.

Havent read all the above so someone might have said this, but have you considered he may be seriously ill?

Read a bit from the first page and what I picked up was:

– He has limited social life – which may be why he is at the computer all the time, to escape from isolation and lonliness and feeling he is without worth to people, even his family. To add to this you take away any money to do things with, so you punish him and show how disappointing he is as a person and take away access to peer social support.

– You row with him all the time. Do you take any time out to spend constructive time with him, ie not rowing, maybe just going for a walk, sharing a bike ride, asking him what his life is like for him, not what his life is like for you? Does he seem happy ever? Is he acting that he is OK when he is really not?

– He may be scared of life – he has chosen a very very competitive field, everyone knows unemployment is high and that kids of the future have little chance of anything but debt and renting – maybe he feels so defeated or afraid he thinks why bother at all – or maybe he is so depressed he cannot do anything except sit there, which is how depressed people can get.

– If he feels depressed or ill, could he trust you to help or chat with him if you just get at him all the time. You dont sound anything but hostile and you have, in the bit I read, said nothing about how he feels about this situation, do you know? Do you listen?

– If he is seriously depressed you need to help him. People literally die from it, suicide etc. Don’t just brush it aside, think seriously about this possibility. Better to worry needlessly and show him you care than go home one day and find him dead.

Seeing theres plenty of experts here – whats the best way to make fried bread?

Latest version of image sizes for ALL social media inc Facebook as of 12.11.2013

http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2012/11/12/final-social-media-sizing-cheat-sheet

Another thanks to everyone for all the encouragement and help.

http://louisem.com/1733/infographic-facebook-photo-size-dimensions

Right, in case anyone else refers to this post I have finally after several searches found some additional info. For details on images sizes on FB and media pages try:

http://havecamerawilltravel.com/photographer/images-photos-facebook-sizes-dimensions-types

http://louisem.com/1726/best-facebook-photo-sizes-cover-profile-wall-photos

http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2012/11/12/final-social-media-sizing-cheat-sheet/%5B/url%5D

http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=337389082130&_fb_noscript=1]http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=337389082130&_fb_noscript=1[/url]

I am amazed how many search terms I had to run to find this info – for such a popular site as FB too.

Thanks to all who have tried to help with this. Still no replies on the photo site. ST declared the winner 🙂

Neal, yes you have a point. I am newish at this though – only just bought and am setting up a web site. I dont want to disappoint the kids either with shoddy pics.

When my web site is up they will be able to directly download large .jpg sizes from passworded galleries so they can print them at home. This will be another couple of weeks yet and also I dont want them to take the large printing sizes and create shoddy FB images with them, so am hoping to release pre-sized ones for FB in advance.

Trying to deal with FB as well at the moment.. I just cant fit it in timewise yet. Also I have a thing about privacy and so am pretty wary of the whole FB system. However I realise I might need to bite the bullet and learn from scratch.

Thanks 🙂

I am worried in case they post them up and they look all shoddy. Maybe facebook is good at reducing the size – though I have a vauge feeling I have seen people complaining about its compression making some of them look rubbish. Perhaps they are wrong. As I said, I never ever use it so never see pictures posted on it either. I really want them to look polished to encourage people to join the clubs and also to get them to view my own web site.

Suck it and see I guess!

Just trying to search Google for more info and my question here is already showing on their search results. Amazed how fast its been listed.

I dont seem to be able to find a page giving instructions on how to prepare photos. Perhaps you have to log in to see the photo help pages?

I dont have a FB account so can’t log in (and I don’t want one). The images are for a kids clubs pages.

And you did beat the photo site, well done ST!

Interview 1 – for a Personnel Dept (!)
“Do you plan to have children and will it be in the next year or so?”

Interview 2 – Working with a solicitor
He had no interview plan, no clue how to interview and talked about his pets for the entire 45 minutes.
I was grateful I had no reason to employ him for legal advice.

Interview 3 –
Went for an in-house job for another dept about 10.30 in the morning. Standard for them to be an hour or less.

When I got there they had a queue of people instead of the standard individual time slots and I was listed last. To kill time I was given a tour of the place. Then I still had to wait about an hour to be interviewed.

The interview was the most annoying and aggressive I have ever had and I nearly lost my temper with the panel and it must have been obvious.

Then they said I had to wait longer in order to do a skills test, for a skill that was not mentioned in the the job description.

Furious by then that I was being so messed about (they could have mentioned all this non standard stuff in the interview letter) I then expected to go home. But they wanted me to wait on the premises until the end of the day to find out if they wanted me or not. I walked out, but was polite while doing so as the person I spoke to had nothing to do with the interview arrangements.
Staggeringly the next morning I was offered the job. I was told I was 1st choice out of 60 applicants.

Due to difficult circumstances I felt I had to take it but did not want it. When I arrived it turned out all the staff had been upset I had been appointed as they thought I was an awful and difficult person to have walked out – and were surprised when I turned out to be normal.

I was promoted twice there and on the whole they were very nice to work for and with, amazingly.

http://newsthump.com

Cheers me up after reading the ‘correct’ news.

Read the internet Guardian and Telegraph front pages most days. Read the Daily Mail internet some days. Some bits of BBC radio, not much.

Used to use the BBC website lots but after it got revamped I found it to be rubbish compared to its previous self and stopped using it at all within days. Very sad it went down hill as it used to be the best place to go.

Magazines. Forums. Conversations with people.

Who or what is Peter Jones? I don’t have a TV at the moment so not seen dragons den.

Ace Cameras in Bath used to be good (I have not used them for a few months). I presume they are one your good camera shops in Bath list? 🙂

The one that used to be in the Podium (Bath Optics?) has sadly bitten the dust since Waitrose evicted them from the shopping centre (along with many other shops) at such short notice.

I use one to listen to audio books. I worked in IT training for a bit and frankly the software is a nightmare in my personal opinion. You can see they have tried to do useful things with it but the result is a complex mess which makes it hard to attain many of the said useful aims.

I am not saying this to put you off, as once you have come to some kind of terms with it, the player is quite good. I just wish someone had told me when I was learning it that its the software thats the issue and not my (or anyone elses) learning ability. I know of a couple of other people who struggled with it too. Persevere, don’t let it get you down and don’t expect it to behave in helpful ways.

I suspect they are best used for loading a bunch of tracks on, then leaving well alone. Sadly that does not work for audio books as they are not something you wish to have played many times. Best hint if you use them for books is not to file them under the Audio books header as it is easier to use them if treated like an album.