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Timothy Chernyaev wasn't having an easy time in life. There were issues with close friends, issues at home, issues at school—issues that, frankly, he didn't feel like deconstructing on a therapist's oily leather couch. What was the point? To his mind, you could save a lot of money by just talking to a mirror—or, better yet, speaking into a tape recorder, then playing it back while skimming a psychiatry textbook: comparing, contrasting, reaching a diagnosis. And yet he couldn't shake the idea that what was making his mind and body literally ache might just be … depression. So he called a friend who had a prescription for Prozac, and asked if he could "borrow" her pills. This was in April. Middle of his sophomore year at Bronx Science. He was 15 years old.
The decision, in a way, made perfect sense. Though he'd never been prescribed anything by a doctor, pharmaceuticals had become impossible to avoid, an intrinsic part of his life. Timothy had taken Ambien (his grandmother's prescription), at first simply to unwind, then in larger doses—three pills, five, one time seven—discovering that doing so caused minor hallucinations. He'd sampled Xanax (a friend's prescription), which he called "tombstones" because the pills resembled two gravestones stuck together. He'd dabbled with Vicodin when his mother got a prescription to treat a pulled muscle, which cracked him up: that a doctor would prescribe a synthetic opiate—wasn't that sort of like heroin?—for such a routine ailment. And once he'd used Adderall for kicks, something seemingly every other kid he knew had done. Prozac, he understood, was different, an SSRI, which meant it subtly recalibrated your brain's serotonin levels, and took a few weeks to take effect. Fine. This was a different sort of experiment. He just wanted to feel better.
"And I did—I felt serene almost," Timothy told me not long ago. "I wasn't sure if it was the placebo effect, or if it really was working. I just felt kind of numb to everything. You don't get your lows, but you don't get your highs either, which can be comforting."
He's a tall kid, Russian-born, with striking Slavic features: inquisitive, almond-shaped eyes, wide flat cheeks, full lips. Fiercely articulate, he tends to be seen by adults as too snide and cynical for his age, which he takes as a compliment. Yet as happy as he is explaining why Dostoyevsky trumps Tolstoy, he's still very much a teenager. Just check him out most Friday nights, hanging with friends in Forest Hills, listening to Modest Mouse, drinking Flaming Doctor Peppers, a cocktail made by lighting a shot of Bacardi 151 on fire, dropping it into a beer, and chugging the whole thing as it foams up like crazy. Like a lot of kids, Timothy keeps an online diary, and after he took the Prozac, its tone became increasingly clinical. Having diagnosed himself, he became his own therapist. Sample entry:
I'm happy. Sheerly happy. Now the decision I have to make is if I'm actually happy or if my mind is stabilized by antidepressants making me happy. Either way, I may need to stop taking them soon. You know, actually deal with my issues as opposed to avoiding them shamefully.
"The other day, my momdecides to trymy Adderalland she flipsout. She calledme literallycrying, andinsisted I go off it. And I'mlike, I'm notgoing off thisduring mysenior year of high school."
The Prozac was a secret until one recent afternoon, when he told a close friend about it. They were sitting on the hood of car, smoking menthol Marlboro Lights. She took a drag, looked at him, and said, "Well, I think it's pathetic, but it's your call." That struck a nerve. He stopped taking the drug. Because, when he really thought about it—especially in retrospect—he kept coming back to the notion that he'd done what a lot of doctors in America seemed to be doing these days. Had he unwittingly diagnosed adolescence as a psychological disorder?
Lately, when adolescents and antidepressants come up in conversation, the talk gets stuck on one subject: suicide. A yearlong debate culminated two weeks ago, on September 14, when a Food and Drug Administration panel advised that more stringent "black box" warnings—similar to what you see on the sides of cigarette packs—be placed on guidelines for doctors to highlight possible links to suicide in children and teenagers. A bombshell, as they say, one that had its origins in England, where it was revealed that GlaxoSmithKline may have suppressed data suggesting a link between use of its antidepressant Paxil and suicidal thoughts in children and adolescents. (The investigation is ongoing.) This caught the eye of New York State's crusading attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, who sued GSK—a case that was settled in August when the company agreed to post all clinical data online and pay New York a conciliatory $2.5 million fine. Meanwhile, Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, launched an investigation into the FDA, claiming that it too had blocked a scientist, Andrew Mosholder, from speaking out about similar findings. There was pressure. Something had to be done. The FDA contracted Columbia University to analyze 25 clinical trials involving 4,000 kids, and a conclusion was reached: Kids on antidepressants are about 1.8 times more likely to have suicidal thoughts and behavior than those not on medication.
So there it was—the mysteries of the teenage mind reduced to a hard number. Fear spread. People panicked. The Times editorialized. A $13 billion industry shuddered. And yet, for all the alarm, the findings are still pretty thin. Suicidal tendencies, of course, are a classic symptom of depression, and there were no actual suicides during any of the clinical studies. (Though one 19-year-old college student with no outward signs of depression killed herself at an Eli Lilly lab during a clinical trial for Cymbalta, the latest antidepressant to hit the market; it's common that such trials involve healthy patients as well as depressed ones.) But what the debate misses entirely is the role prescription drugs play in the life of a teenager like Timothy Chernyaev—how the off-label prescriptions deemed "relatively promiscuous" by Dr. Michael Fant, an FDA panel member, have slyly bred a new cocktail culture of off-off-label use among kids—part self-diagnosis, part self-destruction.
Especially in New York, a city where, perhaps more than anywhere else in the world, the border between adult and child fluctuates between blurry and nonexistent: Top schools offer cutthroat environments similar to top law firms, and many children are quick to adopt their parents' tendencies toward hyperactive perfectionism. "It's very common that it's the parent who first introduces the child to the drug," says Tessa Kleeman, the coordinator of the independent school program at the Freedom Institute, a Manhattan outpatient rehab facility where, she says, there's been an increase in problems related to prescription drugs. "The parents are often in similar environments, often relying on substances to wake up, to get through the day."
More than 50 kids were interviewed for this article—I spoke to them online, over the phone, and many at length and repeatedly in person. Ambien, Adderall, Prozac, Ritalin, Percocet, Valium, Xanax, Klonopin, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, Vicodin, OxyContin, Concerta, Focalin—these names, and others, punctuate their sentences with the same frequency and familiarity as iPods, cell phones, instant messages, homework. Prescription drugs are sold and traded, sometimes for other prescriptions, for beer, for test answers, for cocaine. On LiveJournal, a popular Website where many teens keep online diaries, you can find Xanax, Prozac, and Ambien listed as interests alongside more prototypical teen fare like miniskirts, Carrie Bradshaw, candles, boys, girls, and Britney Spears.
It's a tricky issue. Many doctors say that psychotropic drugs are underprescribed to kids—that, nationally, those who could seriously use them outnumber those on them. "But in a place like Manhattan, I'd say there is a bias toward overprescribing medicine to kids," says Dr. Stanley Turecki, an Upper East Side psychiatrist specializing in adolescents, and author of The Difficult Child, a book about pediatric mental health. Turecki, who describes himself as "conservative" when it comes to writing prescriptions, points out that upper-middle-class parents are especially quick to seek chemical treatment, for themselves and their kids. "The pressure in a certain demographic is extraordinary. You see parents who talk about underperformance as if it's a disorder, which really goes to the heart of the issue: Are we still treating disorders here? Or are we offering performance enhancement?"
Elizabeth knows all about it. A senior at an all-girls school on the Upper East Side, she's dealt with her parents' suggesting medication to treat her attention-deficit disorder for years. There was the Ritalin in sixth grade, which she despised, then the Concerta in eighth, which was even worse. In her sophomore year, she was put on twenty milligrams of Adderall a day, and found that her study habits (though not her eating habits) quickly improved. "So then, the other day, my mom decides to try my Adderall and she flips out," Elizabeth told me. "She couldn't believe how strong it was, how much it changed her mood. She called me literally crying, and insisted I go off it. And I'm like, that's bullshit. I'm not going off this during my senior year of high school when I'm trying to get into college." What bothered her most, she said, was the notion that suddenly her parents were looking at her like she had a drug problem because of a drug they'd put her on. "And I always take it as directed," she said. "A lot of my friends take it recreationally, which, I'm sorry, is just sort of dumb."
The National Institute on Drug Abuse released a study stating that "the most dramatic increase in new users of prescription drugs for nonmedical purposes" had occurred among teens. Those findings are echoed by the just-published National Survey on Drug Use and Health, one of the government's most exhaustive looks at drug trends, which observed that pharmaceuticals have grown in popularity while use of substances like marijuana, ecstasy, and LSD have declined. "There's almost an expectation that someone's going to bring Ambien or Adderall or Xanax to a party these days," says Tessa Kleeman. "One thing I've noticed in recent years is that when I go into classrooms to talk about drugs, students will often bring up their concerns that doctors are overprescribing medicines."
As Timothy and I spoke, he was joined by his best friend, Nadia Smirnova, a 17-year-old senior at Bronx Science with magenta-streaked hair and an array of piercings in each ear. "I was the same way with the Wellbutrin," she said when he finished describing his stint with Prozac, her tone casual, as if she were pointing out something glaringly obvious. "During my freshman year, I was always having these episodes, right? Like I'd break down in the hallways crying and have to skip class." Looking back, she said this probably had to do with Ephedra, the now-illegal diet pills that she used to take every morning to wake up at 5:30 for the Queens-Bronx commute. "They make you really hyper, and then you just crash," Nadia said. To pep herself up for tests, she felt she needed something, so she started taking Adderall. Recently that helped her get through the SATs, though with mixed results: a 720 in math, but just 580 in verbal, because she had to excuse herself many times to go to the bathroom—with Adderall comes dehydration, and a tendency to consume lots of water.
So Nadia decided to stop using Adderall, which was easy enough. Her experience with Wellbutrin, however, was more complicated. "I had a friend who was on a lot of drugs," Nadia explained. "She was doing coke, smoking weed, doing Adderall, constantly drinking—then her doctor gave her a prescription to Wellbutrin."
One day in Spanish class, Nadia's friend tapped her on the shoulder and showed her the bottle of pills.
"Take some."
"I don't want to," said Nadia, who had just turned 14.
"Are you scared?"
"Shut up—I'm not scared."
"Then take some."
"Fine," huffed Nadia, swallowing a pill on the spot.
She started taking it every morning in class, and within weeks the episodes dissolved. Problem was, a few months later her friend's prescription was abruptly terminated. "Her mother found out her boyfriend was dealing coke and took her off everything as punishment," Nadia continued, wincing at the memory. "So I had to go off it just like that! It was tough. I really crashed. The episodes came back, but worse." Nadia talked to her mother, to whom she is close, mentioning that she was depressed and that—who knows?—maybe medication would help. But her mother was adamantly opposed to antidepressants. A few weeks ago, Nadia decided to give up all drug use, but wanted her name in this article because she hoped people would understand her frustration: that even adults don't see the difference. Doctors and dealers, illicit and essential, dumb fun and dire necessity—these distinctions mean nothing anymore. The line between recreational use and medical use has, for many kids, become a hoax, an anachronism, a lie. And though this behavior seems most prevalent among privileged New York teenagers, it is far from restricted to that group. Where there is easy access to prescription pills, there will be kids inventing their own ways of using them. Which raises the question: How much are pills redefining what it means to be a teenager?
Here's the scene: A. is in the kitchen of her apartment on the Upper West Side, laughing with her best friend and feeling perfectly, perfectly stupid. Two fashion-conscious 17-year-olds, they are each holding a steak knife, using the serrated blade to crush two pills of Xanax on a mirror. It is early August. Summer's in full swing: Weekdays blur into weekends, every night buzzes with potential for mischief, and this evening A. has the house to herself. Her father, who works in entertainment, has lived in another state since her parents separated when she was 11⁄2. And her mother, a teacher, is out in the city, as she often is, doing who knows what with who knows whom.
Speaking of parents: The Xanax was swiped from her friend's father, who has Parkinson's disease, and with it a bottomless prescription of what A. calls "the hard-core" two-milligram pills (and which her friend sometimes covertly pops to dull the stress of having a sick dad): oval-shaped tablets meant to be split into fourths, but which can cause a mute, dreamy feeling when swallowed whole. This sensation, they'd heard from a friend, is magnified exponentially when Xanax is snorted—shoots straight into your brain, and two seconds later you're floating, tingling, reality morphed into a waking dream.
A.—who asked to be identified by her middle initial, more to avoid appearing deviant in the eyes of college-admissions officers than in her parents'—has long, layered brown hair, perfectly tweezed eyebrows, and a self-deprecating wit. A senior at one of the city's most selective high schools, she radiates intelligence and is almost disturbingly driven: Her college applications were complete by mid-July, a cool five months ahead of schedule. Her relationship with pharmaceuticals is paradoxical, if not uncommon: On the one hand, they epitomize rebellious sophistication; on the other, an absolute necessity. She has her own prescription for Xanax for acute anxiety, though it's too weak (.25 milligrams) and sparse (only seven pills per pharmacy visit) for recreational purposes, and she used to borrow her mother's to quell her self-diagnosed anxiety attacks. She also takes 100 milligrams of Zoloft every day—before that it was Lexapro, but that made her faint at school—which she went on after years of therapy and depression that spiraled into a dark, impenetrable haze after breaking up with the boy she lost her virginity to. She was cutting herself and lost twenty pounds when she stopped eating. Going on antidepressants had actually been her idea—she'd seen how Wellbutrin helped her mother—and she credits Zoloft with bringing her back to her "normal self."
And yet she also relies on such substances to escape that normal self. "Okay, so after we snorted the Xanax, we went to eat some pizza," she told me over lunch at Cosí, describing the rest of the night. "It makes you hallucinate a little, which is cool. Anyway, we stumbled back to my house, where I passed out on my friend's lap, only to wake up and hear 'The coke dealer's here!' because apparently I'd called a coke dealer before I passed out. I got up and went to the coke dealer across the street—they meet you in a car; it's really sketchy, but it's fun, too." The remainder of the evening is a blur: some lines of coke, a jaunt to a comedy club she saw listed in Time Out, laughter, some more coke, more laughter, then to a friend's parent-free apartment on the Upper West Side. "Over there I traded some coke and some Xanax for some weed—yeah, high-class, I know. We got back to my house by one and had the coke jitters, so we snorted a milligram each of Xanax and passed out. You know, it's good for anxiety, but it really works to counteract cocaine."
And what about the effects of all these uppers battling downers in a brain stem she admits is fragile, one already altered by antidepressants—does she ever worry about that?
"Sometimes I do, but most times I just don't care. I think it's just natural to want to escape real life. I know a lot of my friends are doing this stuff and they're fine."
As for all the talk about antidepressants and suicide: "I don't pay attention to reports like that," she said. "Sometimes my friends are like, 'Hey, you're going to kill yourself!' But it's like with eggs—they've told us a thousand times that eggs are bad for you, then they're good for you, one part of the egg is good, one part is bad. It's just stupid—like saying Marilyn Manson made you kill yourself. Gimme a break."
The New York City teenager may be a notoriously advanced and savvy species of adolescent, but it wasn't that long ago that even 17-year-old private-school kids didn't know what Xanax was. And to those who did, it wasn't exactly something to brag about. As prescription drugs became a sort of cultural currency among adults (Tough meeting tomorrow? Pop an Ambien! First date? Try a Paxil!), they still carried a stigma for teenagers. Being prescribed a regimen of pills to treat something deemed a psychological disorder—from severe depression to mild anxiety to a difficulty paying attention in precalculus—was perceived as embarrassing, something best kept secret. Braces and persistent acne and tyrannical hormones were overwhelming enough without also being known as the Dude on Ritalin or the Crazy Prozac Fiend.
Drug companies, though, have plenty of incentives to market their drugs to kids. Adolescents represent a relatively untapped (but rapidly growing) market for drugmakers, something any successful business looks to exploit. And they're generally encouraged to do so by the government. A federal law passed in 1997 allows a drug company to keep its patent an extra six months by performing clinical trials on children, which translates into enormous profits. Zoloft, for instance, grossed about $3.1 billon in sales last year, so that additional time is hugely lucrative.
Meanwhile, the shame associated with psychotropic meds continues to dissipate as doctors write more prescriptions and the diagnosed "disorders" become less severe-sounding. First there was depression, then social-anxiety disorder; now we have general-anxiety disorder, which Xanax's Website defines as having "vague feelings that something bad is going to happen," an apt description of what it's like to be an adolescent. Zoloft's Website describes social-anxiety disorder as often starting in the "mid-teen" years, and yet the drug's television ad campaign, with its cartoon powder puffs, looks like a Sesame Street outtake. And while Pfizer denies targeting kids, teenagers themselves aren't so sure. "That's so geared toward children," Timothy told me. "It's like, 'You're not happy anymore? Here, take some pills and you'll be appreciating butterflies left and right!' "
"What's really changed is that now they market medical conditions," says Marcia Angell, a member of Harvard Medical School's Department of Social Medicine and author of The Truth About the Drug Companies, the just-published indictment of big pharmaceutical firms. "It's simple—there will always be more healthy people than sick people, so they need to make more people think they're sick. Teens are naturally going through an intense period of ups and downs. The marketing makes them think the downs are unacceptable, that they're a disorder."
What such marketing cannot take into account is that kids are cynical, reluctant to take the word of adults at face value. When this attitude mixes with prescription drugs, it turns into a desire to reinvent their intended uses in a manner that's not necessarily ill-intentioned. Because the taboo truth is that illicit use can be legitimately helpful, which makes the dangers that much easier to overlook.
Case in point: S., who asked to be referred to by the initial of her nickname, was heading home on the subway the other day, midway through her second week of classes at an Upper East Side private school. Across from her, a guy in his twenties was fiddling with a Game Boy, which made her realize how long it had been since she'd done something stupid and childish like played Nintendo. Though she had only just turned 16, she felt old and weirdly nostalgic, which led to her starting to stress about school. It was now junior year—the one everyone tells you means everything—and she still hadn't made it through her summer reading, The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot's 560-page novel known for its mastery of nineteenth-century British dialects. Another year of questions, quizzes, worksheets, papers—and already her brain felt like it was overheating. "That's when I was like, Okay, I need some Adderall," she told me.
Similar to Ritalin, Adderall is prescribed to treat attention-deficit disorder, and it can be thought of as a parent's best dream and worst nightmare synthesized into tiny orange and blue pills. "It makes you a little euphoric," explains Dr. Turecki, "and it truly will help you concentrate on a paper or pull an all-nighter if you have to, which lends it to dependency issues." It also zaps your appetite, making it especially popular among image-conscious teenage girls. S. first tried Adderall her freshman year—when she was 14—grinding up and snorting a pill "just because," and found herself using it more last year, both for school and because it was similar to cocaine, a drug introduced to her through a friend's older sibling. "You swallow Adderall to study, and snort it for fun," S. explained during one of many long chats we had over the past month. "Whenever I couldn't get a dealer I snorted Adderall instead. A lot of people use it when they're trying to quit coke, because Adderall gives you the same rush—well, not the same, but close. The comedown isn't as intense, either." (As it happens, the NIDA is sponsoring studies on whether drugs like Adderall could be effective in curbing cocaine addiction.)
S. is a pixie of a girl, so thin and tiny it makes her self-conscious, namely because teachers often ask if she has an eating disorder. ("I don't! I'm just like this—I want to be fatter!") Her black hair is always meticulously straightened, her lips coated in gloss, her wardrobe a mix of hipster and prep. A vegetarian who makes a single exception for Gray's Papaya, she wavers between Jaded New Yorker (bemoaning the meatpacking-district club scene and how "fake" all her private-school friends are) and Archetypical Teen (playing laser tag in Times Square; deconstructing The Family Guy). She can be charming, brash, introspective, shy, mean, sarcastic, and heartbreakingly kind within a single conversation. When I asked where she gets Xanax, which she's taken "here and there" since she was 14, she looked at me like I was lobotomized and said, "Xanax you steal from your parents. All my friends' parents are strange and depressed, these housewives who don't have anything to do with their lives, the classic depressed mothers who have so many pills. I know it's a stereotype, but it's true. I feel sorry for them."
Though she's also tried codeine, Focalin, and Ambien—as well as the antidepressant Celexa accidentally when a friend thought it was Concerta, another pill S. has sampled—she likes Adderall the most. Last year, she took two 25-milligram pills (twice the standard prescribed dosage) an average of three times a week because "you study literally until your brain can't absorb anymore." Not that it doesn't have unpleasant side effects: Adderall made sleep nearly impossible, which tweaked her moods—and upped the appeal of Xanax. "You're really happy, and then you get depressed and start thinking about things you don't want to think about," she said. "One of my friends snorted Adderall right before an exam, and during the test he started breaking down crying."
"We got back to my house by 1 A.M. and had the coke jitters, so we snorted a milligram each of Xanaxand passed out. You know,it's good foranxiety but itreally works to counteractcocaine."
She decided to make a brief stop before going home, heading to Union Square—she knew that the skater kids dealt Adderall. Walking into the park, she thought about her mother, who a few days before had delivered a familiar lecture—big year … need good grades … better than normal … if you really want Cornell … your future—which had been gnawing at S. ever since. A few minutes later, she was approaching a scrawny, pimply kid wearing baggy black pants, his hat turned sideways.
"What's up?" S. said.
"What's up?"
"You got any Adderall?"
It was her use of Adderall, in conjunction with cocaine, that resulted in S.'s expulsion from the all-girls private school she attended last year—despite the fact that her grades had gone from B's to A's. She found herself in rehab, which she accepted at first, agreeing that cocaine—and only cocaine—had become a problem. Tessa Kleeman of the Freedom Institute says that she's seen a dramatic increase in cocaine use among private-school kids over the past year—perhaps partly owing to the fact that kids grow more accustomed to the idea of inhaling a powder first through prescription drugs. "Oh, that's definitely true," S. said when I asked about this.
Her rehab experience quickly soured once therapy was introduced. "My mom thought I was really fucked up, so she made me see a therapist," S. said. "And I hate therapists. They're sneaky, nosy, and manipulative. I've just never really believed in psychiatry." This is a common outlook among people her age: A recent government-funded study led by Dr. John S. March, a professor of psychiatry at Duke, found that taking Prozac was more effective for teens than traditional therapy—findings that wouldn't surprise S., considering that after "only my third session" her therapist suggested that she go on Prozac, Zoloft, or "some other ones that I hadn't heard of." She refused. It wasn't that she didn't think she was depressed—losing her parents' trust tortured her, and earlier in the year a close friend she had briefly dated had committed suicide. He was a freshman in college, and used to confide in S. about how he was depressed, mainly because he wasn't doing well in school. "Of course, I didn't really think about it, because a lot of people are depressed, and everyone always says they don't want to live anymore," she said. He called her the night he died—she didn't feel like talking to him and didn't answer her phone—leaving her with what she knew was the irrational feeling that "I could've somehow prevented it." At his funeral, she had an anxiety attack: crying, loss of breath, her knees so weak she collapsed. A friend gave her some pills—"I don't even know what they were; Xanax, I think"—which helped her relax. Yet when, just a few weeks later, the therapist suggested she go on antidepressants, she felt as if people were trying to control her moods. She'd taken prescription drugs for years, she knew what they were all about, and didn't need a doctor—or, for that matter, any adult—trying to convince her otherwise.
In Union Square, the skater kid pulled out a plastic bag full of pills, both blues (the four-hour tablets, often called "homework pills") and oranges (time-release capsules), which he had because a doctor had diagnosed him with ADD.
"Score," S. said. "Can I have 50?"
"That's 50 bucks."
"Don't be a fucking idiot." S. flashed a sassy grin that she knows has a way of getting boys to cooperate. "I'll give you—I don't know—how's about 20 bucks?"
"Fine," he said sulkily, and S. put the pills in a little coin purse and headed back home. When she got to her building her doorman gave her a suspicious look, as he often did, which got to her. After all, what did he know? Was he a 16-year-old girl? Could he relate to the pressure? Did his close friend die? Why was everyone always … prying? She had the urge to do something, to somehow hurt him, but what would be the point? So she just smiled a little awkwardly, and went upstairs to start her homework. "I'm a star studier," she told me that last time we spoke. "I hate school so much, but you should see me. I'm unstoppable!"
There are, of course, health risks to such behavior. Too many uppers and your heart rate can go ballistic, too many downers and it can stop beating; mixing both can put your whole body at war with itself. "You're basically playing pinball with your brain's chemistry," says Dr. Turecki. "You can induce a psychotic state." But such cases are extreme, and rare, which makes the standard dictum that Drugs Are Bad all the more difficult for kids to take seriously when it comes to pharmaceuticals (especially when their parents' medicine cabinets are fully stocked with them). Unlike drinking in excess or taking ecstasy, psychotropic drugs don't annihilate normalcy so much as adjust it: a little Adderall for studying, Xanax to come down off the Adderall, Ambien or Klonopin to get a good night's sleep—and Zoloft or Prozac or Wellbutrin to stave off the volatile moods that go hand in hand with being an adolescent. "That's a primary concern of ours," says Tessa Kleeman. "When you use a substance for something you can do naturally, you'll ultimately lose the ability to do it naturally. In teens, pill popping can replace maturing emotionally—that person is eliminating human experience from their life."
J. could've told you that. Here we are, a new school year just getting under way, which for J., a senior at a highly competitive public school, may end up meaning business. Last year, she sold (mainly) Adderall and Ritalin. Prices ranged from $3 to $10 a pill, depending on what she calls "the supply-and-demand ratio." Her business model was both modest and flawless: She got the Adderall from a guy who works in a Rite Aid pharmacy and hooked her up in bulk for the "mad cheap" price of $20 for 100 milligrams; the Ritalin came from a friend who had numerous bottles sitting around "from when his doctor thought he had ADD but his parents weren't sure." People like J. have become a common presence in New York high schools: the unwitting dealer, the outgoing kid whose entrepreneurial flair gets her Constant Connection status.
"It's not like I wanted to be a dealer or anything," J. told me the other night. "I just got tired of spending money on these things myself. This way I'm good. I get 50 bucks in my pocket, and I can trade up easy. Like, there's another kid, used to be such a geek, now he sells Xanax and OxyContin—so I give him what he needs to get fucked up, and he does the same for me." We were walking along the street in Queens, near where she lives, checking out stretchy acid-washed jeans at V.I.M. J. is 17 years old, a sparkplug in female form: funny, blunt, a fast talker, every word punctuated by her tongue ring, which clicks against her teeth with the regular rhythm of a stopwatch.
She barely remembers how she first got into prescription drugs—they were just around, everywhere, not remotely taboo. In freshman year, she started going to punk shows and running with a crew who liked to do lines of Ambien and hydrocodone (generic Vicodin). Pharmaceuticals were so ingrained in her consciousness that for a biology project she decided to interview her peers about their experiences with antidepressants—not because she was particularly fascinated, but because it seemed easy.
To master the art of pharmaceuticals, to possess the knowledge of how to use her brain as a science experiment, J. and her friends often go online or study medical textbooks in the library, looking up drugs and seeing if "the side effects sound appealing." She's even invented her own means of ingesting the drugs, which she calls "parachuting": grinding the pills, placing them in tissue paper, and dropping them down your throat. "That way, you get all the drug's surface area," she explained. "Even more than when you snort it."
Lately, though, her outlook has started to change. Friends have gone into rehab, or gotten "crazy edgy," and her own mood has developed a habit of swinging unpredictably from one extreme to another. Though she started dealing for the free product, J. soon cared more about making money, and then suddenly swore off dealing. She said she was "more mature about it," and when I asked her what that meant, she said it was simple: Something wasn't right with swallowing so many pills to do things that were ostensibly normal. "People are always trying to feel better, you know?" she said. "But they don't know how to naturally make themselves feel better anymore, how to respect themselves, love themselves. What is that?"
Her adolescent swagger aside, I was struck by what J. was saying, how her attitude was at once flip and philosophical. It was an outlook shared by most everyone I interviewed. J. and her peers are truly the first generation to come of age in an era in which the much-touted products of major pharmaceutical companies have merged with the rebellious spirit of adolescence. And yet the majority of these teenagers expressed serious and well-thought-out reservations about such drugs. Prescriptions are too easily available, they said. Pills are more addictive than anyone realizes. Over and over I was told that if they could choose to, they would not have so many pills in their lives. But of course it's not entirely up to them. They may mimic the behavior of their parents, but in the end, they're still children.


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Go one step further with our course and stand out from the crowd. At Psychometriq we have created specific tests designed to improve your performance on the cognitive ability tests.
What should I expect of the cognitive aptitude testing?
The cognitive aptitude testing is a set of assessments implemented to improve the recruitment process.
Due to the large number of applications that the companies receive, recruiters need to narrow down the number of applicants to focus and, prioritize those with the greatest potential to bring value to the team.
The cognitive aptitude testing helps companies to assess the participants' abilities to interpret information, work efficiently, and adapt to different systems, among other qualities.
They can estimate whether the participants have the ability to adapt to the role they seek to play and glean their future performance.
The complexity of the cognitive aptitude testing will depend on the firm or organization for which you apply, as well as the position you wish to apply to
Cognitive ability testing practice
The cognitive aptitude testing evaluates the following criteria:
a. Numerical reasoning.
b. Verbal understanding.
c. Error detection.
d. Systems visualization (abstract reasoning).
e. Spatial awareness.
The dynamics could become overwhelming without proper preparation. Luckily, you won't have to worry if you spend some time practicing with our cognitive ability practice test.
It will help you dive into all the details of the exam that you will need to know in order to get good results, impress recruiters and increase your chances of being hired. You might even score into a higher position at work because of how well you do on your test.
Go one step further with our course and stand out from the crowd. At Psychometriq we have created specific tests designed to improve your performance on the cognitive ability tests.
Cognitive ability testing in PDF
Through our preparation course for the cognitive ability tests, you will greatly improve your performance on these tests. In a short amount of time you will become familiar with the style and wording of the questions, your mathematics will have improved, and your time management will be spot on.
At the end you will be able recognize and understand tricky questions in mere seconds as well as be able to assess which methods will be best for the solution.
Cognitive ability testing examples
You can take a look at the resources for psychometric tests available on our portal.
These tests will help you get rid of your doubts and test taking anxiety and help you strengthen your mastery of the cognitive ability test.
Keep in mind that this will only be possible upon taking full advantage of our cognitive ability testing course material and examples. Don't forget that practice and dedication are the keys to succeed in any field and especially the business world.

subset: commoncrawl


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Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 Review
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 is a digital compact camera with a powerful 35x optical zoom, giving a stunning range of 25-875mm. It also features a 16 megapixel sensor, Manual shooting mode, 3 inch LCD screen, HD video and 10 digital filter effects. It's a large zoom camera that will appeal to the happy snapper crowd as well as keen amateurs, thanks to some manual functions. But will the image quality stand up in our test? Priced at around £158.99, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 is available in black or red.
Ease of Use
From the outside, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 looks like any other bridge camera on the market today. Take for example the simplified command dial with only eight modes on it. There's no provision for shutter or aperture priority. The LZ30 also lacks an Electronic Viewfinder (EVF) so you can't use it as a normal camera by holding it up to your eye. The main issue that this has is when holding the camera out to watch the screen, it moves out of your centre of gravity and becomes harder to keep still. The result of this – especially as you zoom out – is that the camera has to overcompensate by using the image stabiliser or if that's not enough, ramping up the ISO.
For such a large camera, the controls are smaller, like what you'd find on a normal digital compact. Everything is arranged in a typical fashion with the command dial sat on the right shoulder next to the pop-up flash. The power buttons sits next to it with the direct video record button between that and the shutter release button. On the back, there's a simplified layout of the quick access buttons with the Exposure button (which we'll cover later) at the top, the Playback button just below and the navigation pad as the focus point for the area. The pad doubles up its commands so you can access other features, such as flash, macro, self-timer and exposure compensation.
The metal tripod bush and locking battery door – while small – are indications of a better build quality. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 certainly doesn't feel light and the extra weight gives it an air of a superior build. However, Panasonic have not even fitted the Mega OIS to the lens. A name that's been synonymous with high zoom Panasonics for years. The camera is well balanced when the batteries are in, which are 4x AA type.
Front | Rear |
Panasonic have positioned the LZ30 just above the beginner market which is why there's a Manual mode on the command dial. The manual mode is pretty basic though. It only has two aperture values - which will vary depending on the focal length of the lens, but there will be one wide and one narrow. There's more variation on the shutter speed which is great for creative shots involving longer exposures. To operate the manual control, you have to put the camera to the M position on the command dial and then press the Exposure button on the back. The aperture and shutter speed on the screen will then highlight with arrows indicating which way you can increase or decrease the current values. Then it's a case of using the pad on the back to adjust them.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 has a start up time from cold of around 1.7sec which is a pretty good performance on the average of 2.5sec. There are two drive modes on the LZ30. A burst mode and continuous shooting mode. In the continuous mode, the LZ30 takes seven photographs in a ten second period. That works out at 0.7fps (frames per second). It plods along pretty respectfully and should do that until the card is full. The burst mode knocks the resolution down to 3 megapixels. It takes six images in the first two seconds before slowing to 1fps. It takes up to 14 seconds to get the rest of the information on to the memory card before it's ready to record again although this could be shorter with a faster card.
Side | Pop-up Flash |
Using the menu system is pretty easy. The Q.Menu simplifies access to the main processes that you'll use in everyday shooting, such as resolution, ISO, white-balance and drive modes. In the Main menu, there are three sections to choose from; Rec, Motion picture and Setup. The Rec section extends what the Q.Menu offers focusing or metering modes then the Rec section is what you need to choose. There's four pages of options and certain modes will blank out if they're not accessible in the mode you've selected. The Motion picture option is for video modes and there's only two for the recording quality and the focus modes. Finally the Setup menu is for the more core features of the camera such as the language settings, date & time, card formatting and monitor settings.
You can view pictures on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 regardless of whether the camera is switched on or not. When the camera is on, simply press the Playback button on the back of the camera above the direction pad. If the camera is off, simply press the button and hold it down for a few seconds to get the camera to fire up. Images will be full screen and you can scroll through them by using the left/right buttons on the back of the camera. You can zoom in to the pictures by using the zoom switch and if you zoom the other way, the pictures zoom out into a thumbnail gallery. You can do this three times with the final option bringing up a calendar of dates you took certain photographs on the card.
Memory Card Slot | Battery Compartment |
You will notice on the pictures, if you press up on the navigation pad, you can access the Creative Retouch menu. In this menu, you can add various effects to the photographs, such as Retro, High key and Low key, Sepia and various HDR effects. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 has an HDR mode which will blend multiple images to create a neutrally exposed image with detail in the shadows and no burn out in the highlights. The process takes three pictures in quick succession; one over exposed, one perfectly and one under exposed. It then blends them together in camera. The pictures are taken at 3 megapixel – which is a real shame – and we hoped that it may blend them to create a larger resolution image, but it doesn't.
In the box, you get the camera and a set of AA batteries to get you started. A small bag on the top layer contains a basic starter guide in multiple languages, the usual European warranty information and a software CD that contains the full User Manual as well as PHOTOfunSTUDIO 9.0 which is an editing program. There's also a trial version of LoiLoScope for editing videos.
Image Quality
Image quality is arguably the most important part of the test. If the camera can't create decent images then it's not worth getting, right? At full resolution, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 records images around 4.5Mb in size. Drop that down to the normal compression and the pictures are around 3.15Mb.
What can we say about the noise results from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30? Mid-range tones and hilights look great. They're sharp, clean and well exposed. Then we look at the low key areas such as shadows and dark materials in the pictures. Our test shots show blotches of red and blue noise showing through at ISO 100. That's not good by all accounts. Move through to ISO 200 and the colour issues get worse in terms of volume, but not intensity.
At ISO 400, the blue and red seems to drop off, arguably combated by noise reduction software. However, if NR was at work, it would have done a better job so we wonder what it's been doing all this time. Image detail has started to degrade and sharp edges are starting to get broken down.
Move up to ISO 800 and the green drops off with just blue showing this time. Details are getting smudged about in a bid to remove salt and pepper noise. Primary colours are desaturated to try and cap the colour coming through. At ISO 1600 sharp edges are soft and squidgy while primary colours are barely there. Green noise is back which is just really odd.
ISO 100 (100% Crop) |
ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
Focal Range
The focal length of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 is 35x. That ranges from 25mm at the wide end to an eyebrow raising 875mm at the top end. There's also the option to increase that to 78.8x zoom using the Extra Optical Zoom function. It reduces the resolution to 3 megapixel and uses the centre of the sensor to bring the subject closer. It's a feature that's been available on some Canon high end compacts – such as the G series – for some years now.
25mm |
875mm |
We don't normally see a difference in image quality when using the sharpening tools in editing suites such as Adobe Photoshop. This is because when the image goes through the processor, one of the things it does is sharpen the picture. Still, we saw a definite increase in sharpness on our test shots.
Original (100% Crop) |
Sharpened (100% Crop) |
File Quality
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 has 2 different image quality settings available, with Fine being the highest quality option. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.
16M Fine (4.52Mb) (100% Crop) | 16M Normal (3.16Mb) (100% Crop) |
Chromatic Aberrations
Chromatic aberration is seen easily on high contrast edges which are generally light over dark. They show as various colours and it happens because the camera hasn't focused all the colours of the spectrum on the sensor.
Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop) |
Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop) |
There are two close focusing modes on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30. Panasonic say that the camera can get as close as 1cm but that's an ambiguous statement to make. It can only do that in Super Macro which cuts off the zoom function. Normal macro focuses further away and while the lens kept flashing the words 0.3m at us (30cm), we got to around 10cm.
Macro |
Macro (100% Crop) |
At wide-angle, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 does suffer from vignetting in the corners of the frame. It remains as you zoom in, but the camera can't focus on it as well, so it phases out to be barely noticeable. Our test was against a white wall. In normal shooting conditions, you won't see that. Adding flash stabilises the light and increases it slightly. However, it is an intelligent flash system and will work with the metering to give the impression of ambience.
Flash Off - Wide Angle (25mm) |
Flash On - Wide Angle (25mm) |
Flash Off - Telephoto (875mm) |
Flash On - Telephoto (875mm) |
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 has a red-eye removal software program, so if you do get it. You can completely eliminate it. However, in our tests, we never got it and we think this is down to the fact that it's a pop up type. Because of the angle that the light enters the pupil, it doesn't bounce off the retina in a way that will reflect into the camera lens.
Forced On |
Forced On (100% Crop) |
Auto/Red-eye Reduction |
Auto/Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop) |
We tested the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 using the Night scene mode and Program mode. Because of the camera's seeming inability to remove noise at low ISO, the processor has worked overtime on the long exposures of the night shots. In Night mode, the camera selects the ISO although in our test it chose ISO 100. Night mode does benefit from a longer shutter speed selection. In Program, the camera is limited to one second.
We did get to choose the white-balance setting in Program mode though and it shows with a much more balanced colour temperature.
Night Scene |
Night Scene (100% Crop) |
Night Program |
Night Program (100% Crop) |
Sample Images
This is a selection of sample images from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 camera, which were all taken using the 16 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.
1/250s · f/3.7 · ISO 100
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1/160s · f/3.8 · ISO 100
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1/320s · f/3.8 · ISO 200
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1/640s · f/3.8 · ISO 400
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1/200s · f/9.9 · ISO 800
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2/1s · f/3 · ISO 100
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1/80s · f/3.7 · ISO 100
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1/400s · f/9.9 · ISO 1600
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1/10s · f/3 · ISO 400
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1/160s · f/5.9 · ISO 400
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1/200s · f/3 · ISO 100
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1/200s · f/5.9 · ISO 100
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1/500s · f/3.9 · ISO 100
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1/400s · f/4.2 · ISO 100
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1/640s · f/3 · ISO 100
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1/250s · f/3.7 · ISO 100
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1/400s · f/3 · ISO 100
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1/125s · f/4.3 · ISO 100
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1/160s · f/5.9 · ISO 200
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1/60s · f/3 · ISO 200
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1/50s · f/3 · ISO 400
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1/250s · f/7.7 · ISO 100
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1/640s · f/5.9 · ISO 100
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1/640s · f/7.7 · ISO 100
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1/125s · f/4.5 · ISO 100
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1/400s · f/3.5 · ISO 100
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1/160s · f/5.9 · ISO 400
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1/160s · f/10.6 · ISO 100
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1/60s · f/3 · ISO 160
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1/40s · f/3.2 · ISO 400
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1/125s · f/4.4 · ISO 400
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1/640s · f/3.9 · ISO 100
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1/30s · f/3 · ISO 400
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1/100s · f/4.1 · ISO 100
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1/320s · f/5.9 · ISO 100
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1/60s · f/3 · ISO 200
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1/60s · f/3.2 · ISO 100
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1/60s · f/3.2 · ISO 200
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1/250s · f/3 · ISO 400
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1/160s · f/3.7 · ISO 100
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1/30s · f/3 · ISO 100
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1/8s · f/3 · ISO 800
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1/250s · f/7.7 · ISO 100
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1/640s · f/5.9 · ISO 100
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Sample Movie & Video
This is a sample movie at the quality setting of 1280 x 720 at 30 frames per second. Please note that this 33 second movie is 121Mb in size.
Product Images
Front of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 |
Side of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 |
Side of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 |
Pop-up Flash |
Rear of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 |
Rear of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 / Image Displayed |
Rear of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 / Turned On |
Rear of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 / Quick Menu |
Rear of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 / Creative Controls |
Rear of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 / Scene Modes |
Rear of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 / Main Menu |
Rear of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 / Rec Menu |
Rear of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 / Motion Picture Menu |
Rear of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 / Setup Menu |
Rear of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 / Playback Menu |
Rear of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 / Creative Retouch Menu |
Top of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 |
Bottom of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 |
Side of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 |
Side of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 |
Front of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 |
Memory Card Slot |
Battery Compartment |
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 is effortlessly easy to use because of its easy point and shoot approach. The controls follow a tried and tested formula that brings everything within easy reach of probing fingers. However, the Manual mode is available for anyone wanting to take their photography further and begin to understand about the fundamentals. The features of the Manual mode are extremely basic but the fact that they're there in the first place is a step forward.
On the outside, the DMC-LZ30 is built very well. It's solid enough to hold, doesn't weigh much, has a metal tripod bush and battery door locking switch. Our discovery of hard chromatic aberration shows that the lens isn't in the same place, quality-wise. The screen also sticks out of the body slightly, which can be an indication of a cheaper unit being used.
The image quality can either be summed up with one word, or we can give a longer, less crude opinion. The fact that the camera shows blue and red noise spots in our test is terrible. We even checked the sample images and they showed consistent results. This would be acceptable at ISO 800 or even 400 at a push. But to have such bad noise showing at ISO 100 is sub-standard. Aside from that, the LZ30 produces well exposed and sharp images. Although, the focusing is a bit slow. Once it's in the zone of finding the focus point, everything else has to wait.
Thank the lucky stars that the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 costs less than £160, because from an image quality point of view, it's not a very good camera. And this is a shame because the rest of it has been made well. You could argue that viewing the pictures at normal size will negate the noise issue because it's unlikely to be seen and it depends on how pedantic you want to be about it. As reviewers, we have to be pedantic in order to bring all the information and this is our Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 summary: a well built, good looking, easy to use bridge superzoom camera with poor image quality at all settings. Take a close look at our test shots before making your own mind up about whether to buy this camera or not...
Ratings (out of 5) | |
Design | 4 |
Features | 4 |
Ease-of-use | 4.5 |
Image quality | 3 |
Value for money | 3.5 |
Main Rivals
Listed below are some of the rivals of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30.
Canon PowerShot SX500 IS
The Canon PowerShot SX500 IS is a pocket-friendly super-zoom camera with a remarkable 30x zoom lens. The Canon SX500 also offers 16 megapixels, a 3-inch LCD screen, full manual controls and 720p HD movies. Read our expert Canon PowerShot SX500 IS review to find out if it's the right camera for you.
Fujifilm FinePix S4200
The new Fujifilm FinePix S4200 super-zoom camera boasts a 24x zoom lens, 14 megapixel sensor, 3 inch LCD screen and 720p movies, all for under under $150 / £150. Does the S4200 cut too many corners though? Find out by reading our in-depth Fujifilm FinePix S4200 review...
Nikon Coolpix L820
The Nikon Coolpix L820 is an affordable super-zoom compact camera with a 30x zoom lens. The 16 megapixel bridge-style Nikon L820 has a 3-inch LCD screen, 1080p movies and uses AA batteries. Read our Nikon Coolpix L820 review to find out if this is the right super zoom camera for you...
Olympus SP-720UZ
The Olympus SP-720UZ is an affordable new ultra-zoom compact camera, featuring a 26x zoom lens with a focal range of 26-676mm. Other key features offered by the SP-720 UZ include a 14 megapixel sensor, 1080p HD video recording, sensor-shift image stabilisation and a range of Magic Filters. Priced at £230, we find out if the Olympus SP-720UZ super-zoom is all the camera you'll ever need...
Pentax Optio X90
The Pentax Optio X90 is a brand new super-zoom compact camera featuring a 26x image-stabilized zoom lens with a focal range of 26-676mm. Successor to the X70 model, the X90 has a 12 megapixel sensor, 2.7 inch screen, full range of creative shooting modes and can record 720p HD movies. Retailing for £329.99 / $399.95, does the Pentax Optio X90 offer enough to match its super-zoom rivals? Gavin Stoker finds out in our Pentax Optio X90 review.
Samsung WB5000
The WB5000 / HZ25W is Samsung's first entry into the big boy world of all-in-one super-zoom cameras. Offering a 24x zoom lens with 26mm wide-angle setting, the WB5000 literally has most photographic subjects covered, for both 12 megapixel stills and 720p movies. Throw in a range of hand-holding smart modes for beginners and RAW format and Manual mode for advanced users, and Samsung could be onto a winner at their very first attempt. Read our expert Samsung WB5000 / HZ25W review to find out if Panasonic, Olympus et al have anything to fear...
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 is a new superzoom compact camera that won't break the bank. The Sony H200 features a 26x 24-633mm lens, 20 megapixel CCD sensor, 720p HD video with stereo sound, 3-inch screen, and even a manual shooting mode. Read our expert Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H200 review to find out if it's the right super-zoom bridge camera for you...
Review Roundup
Reviews of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 from around the web.
ephotozine.com »
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ30 was launched in January 2013 and is a mid-range ultra-zoom bridge camera, with 35x optical zoom lens, manual controls, optical image stabilisation and it uses AA batteries. It is available for £149.00.
Read the full review »
Dimensions (W x H x D) (Approx.) |
123.8 x 83.7 x 91.4 mm |
Weight (Approx.) |
465 g (1.03 lb) without Battery and SD Memory Card |
Camera Effective Pixels | 16.1 Megapixels | ||||||||
Sensor Size / Total Pixels / Filter | 1/2.3-inch CCD sensor / 16.4 Total Megapixels / Primary Color Filter | ||||||||
Aperture | F3.0 - 5.9 / 2-step (F3.0 / 7.7 (W), F5.9 / 15.3 (T)) | ||||||||
Optical Zoom | 35x | ||||||||
Focal Length |
f = 4.5 - 157.5 mm (25 - 875 mm in 35 mm equiv.) (30 - 1,050 mm in 35 mm equiv. in video recording) |
Extra Optical Zoom (EZ) | 44.2x (4:3 / 10M), 63.0x (4:3 / 5M), 78.8x (4:3 / under 3M) | ||||||||
Lens |
14 elements in 10 groups (1 Aspherical Lens / 2 Aspherical Surfaces, 3 ED Lenses) |
Optical Image Stabilizer | O.I.S. (On / Off) | ||||||||
Digital Zoom | Max. 4x | ||||||||
Focusing Area |
Normal: Wide 30 cm - infinity / Tele 200 cm - infinity Macro / Intelligent Auto / Motion Picture: Wide 1 cm - infinity / Tele 150 cm - infinity |
AF Assist Lamp | Yes (On / Off) | ||||||||
Focus | Normal / AF Macro / Zoom Macro, Continuous AF (On / Off), AF Tracking | ||||||||
AF Metering | Face / AF Tracking / 1-area / 9-area / Spot | ||||||||
Shutter Speed | Approx.15 - 1/2,000 sec | ||||||||
Recording File Format |
Still Image: JPEG (DCF / Exif 2.3) Motion Picture: QuickTime Motion JPEG |
Rec Mode (Mode Button) | Intelligent Auto, P (Program), M (Manual), Creative Control, Scene, Portrait, Scenery, Sports | ||||||||
Creative Control | Expressive, Retro, High Key, Low Key, Sepia, Dynamic Monochrome, Impressive Art, High Dynamic, Cross Process, One Point Color | ||||||||
Still Image Scene Mode |
Panorama Shot, Night Portrait, Night Scenery, Food, Baby*, Sunset, High Sensitivity, HDR * Birthday only. |
Continuous Shooting Mode |
Full-resolution Image: Approx. 1 frame / sec High-speed Burst: Approx. 3 frames / sec (recorded in 3M for 4:3, 2.5M for 3:2, 2M for 16:9, 2.5M for 1:1) |
Motion Picture Recording*1 |
Exposure | Program AE, Manual | ||||||||
Exposure Compensation | 1/3 EV step, ±3 EV | ||||||||
Auto (AE) Bracketing | 1/3 - 2 EV step, Max. ±2 EV, 3 frames | ||||||||
Light Metering | Multiple / Center Weighted / Spot | ||||||||
ISO Sensitivity (Standard Output Sensitivity) |
Auto / 100 / 200 / 400 / 800 / 1600 High Sensitivity Mode (ISO1600 - 6400) |
Still Image Recording |
Image Quality | Fine / Standard | ||||||||
White Balance | Auto / Daylight / Cloudy / Shade / Incandescent / White Set / White Balance Adjustment (Except Auto) | ||||||||
Color Mode | Standard, Black & White, Sepia, Vivid | ||||||||
Digital Red-Eye Correction (Red-Eye Removal) |
Yes | ||||||||
Self Timer | 2 sec / 10 sec | ||||||||
Playback Mode | Normal Play, Slide Show, Category Selection, Calendar | ||||||||
Thumbnails / Zoomed Playback |
12, 30 thumbnails / Yes |
Calendar Display | Yes | ||||||||
Show Histogram | Yes | ||||||||
Set Protection | Yes | ||||||||
Retouch | Creative Retouch | ||||||||
Resize / Cropping |
Yes / Yes |
Copy | Yes | ||||||||
PictBridge Support | Single / Multi / All | ||||||||
OSD Language |
English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Russian, Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), Netherlandic, Thai, Turkish, Portuguese, Arabic, Persian, Japanese, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Vietnamese, Hindi * Check the website of Panasonic sales company in your country / region or ask customer support for details of the OSD language available on the products sold in your country / region. |
3.0" (7.5 cm) TFT Screen LCD Display (460K dots) Field of View: Approx. 100% Auto Power Monitor Mode, Power Monitor Mode, High-angle Mode |
Built-in Flash |
Auto, Auto / Red-eye Reduction, Forced On, Slow Sync. / Red-eye Reduction, Forced Off 0.6 - 10.0 m (Wide / ISO Auto), 1.5 - 5.0 m (Tele / ISO Auto) |
Recording Media | Built-in Memory, SD Memory Card, SDHC Memory Card, SDXC Memory Card | ||||||||
Built-in Memory | Approx. 100 MB | ||||||||
Microphone / Speaker | Mono / Mono | ||||||||
Interface | AV Output, USB (AV / USB Multi) | ||||||||
Power | Alkaline AA Battery / Ni-MH Battery x 4 | ||||||||
Battery Life*2 (Approx.) |
380 pictures (AA Battery) (CIPA Standard) | ||||||||
Included Software |
PHOTOfunSTUDIO 9.0 LE, Adobe Reader | ||||||||
Standard Accessories |
Alkaline AA Battery × 4, AV Cable, USB Cable, Shoulder Strap, CD-ROM, Lens Cap, Lens Cap String * Check the website of the Panasonic sales company in your country or region for details on the standard accessories on the products that are available in your market. |
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Diane Pyle - Wedding Coordinator - (913) 269-4447
Diane, your Professional Wedding Coordinator, will make your special day memorable, stress free and picture perfect.
I planned my daughters entire wedding in 2009 and loved every minute of the experience. We had a sit down dinner for 290 guests. When it came to the day of her wedding I realized I was running all over the place and not enjoying the day as I should as Mother of the Bride. I had candles to light (a lot of candles to light!) I had people who showed up who did not RSVP and there was not place for them to sit, and various other little problems that arose and I was the only one to handle those problems.
After the wedding excitement wore down I realized if I had had a 'Day Of" Coordinator I would have enjoyed my daughters wedding day to it's fullest. I decided to take an on-line class to become a Wedding Planner. I wanted to be sure that other Mothers of the Bride and Groom could relax and enjoy their child's wedding day and not worry about the tiny details. I started out planning weddings for friends and the feedback I received was wonderful.
What I found after doing several weddings and with the excellent reviews, is I am pretty darn good at this. I am very organized, I have strict attention to detail and I can work with anyone. If there are any problems, I will address them quickly, diplomatically and efficiently. You won't even know there was a problem! You will be able to enjoy your day and not have to deal with any detail. I will take care of everything for you. You will have a stress free perfect day!
My general approach as a Wedding Coordinator is that no one will bother you with anything all day. I'm the first vendor at the venue. I make sure all of your Vendors are doing what they should be doing at the time it's supposed to be done. My clipboard almost never leaves my hands, and my eye stays on my watch. This allows me to keep things running on time, while allowing for flexibility. I carefully evaluate any issues that come up, figure out a solution, and decide if it's worth bothering you (typically never.) I have a naturally calm head in a crisis. And understand: real crises almost never happen at weddings (small issues, however, do come up.) Allow me to be your Wedding Coordinator and your day will be Spectacular!
In order to have a perfect wedding day we must start with the perfect timeline. Timelines can be confusing when you've never created one—even if you've attended many weddings you probably haven't paid much attention to how long each individual aspect lasted. Diane, your Professional Wedding Coordinator will work with you to set up a perfect Timeline so your day will run smoothly.
Timelines are a guideline, not set in stone. I typically start each wedding day with a two-page, single-spaced timeline—it contains every single thing that every single person is doing for the entire day. But, it's extremely rare that a reception hits every point at the minute it's supposed to. For example; we move up the first dance because everyone finished eating early. Starting and ending the wedding on time are key—hitting everything in the middle in the approximate right order is important, but it is also important to be flexible. Diane, your Wedding Planner will create the Timeline for your day according to your wishes and with my experience, I will keep your day running smoothly just as we planned!
Give me a call and we will schedule our first meeting. We will go over expectations and discuss your dreams and desires. From there we will step through the process. As Your Wedding Planner I'll build your Timeline and review it with you. I'll visit the venue, contact your vendors and finalize all details.
I know you want your wedding day to be a unique day that celebrates you! Contact me and I'll make sure your Wedding Day will be Spectacular!


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I have always been a very dedicated home cook. I cooked with my grandma and my mum, and now I cook for my family.
My kitchen is small, but I don't mind; it's cozy and no one bothers me while I bake, chop veggies or cook dinner. But when you have limited space, any appliance, tool, pot and pan have to be worth it. It must earn its place in my small kitchen.
With this in mind, I saved up some money and got myself a legendary set of All-Clad stainless steel 10-piece collection. It's been years from that, and it is as good as new!
Let me Tell You A Bit About All-Clad
People are obsessed with quality. Every item they sell is made in America as they're all basically artisan, handcrafted pieces built to last, but also to distribute heat perfectly. That's why this brand has a colossal reputation; there's no cookware like it.
These are no supermarket pots and pans since All-Clad's quality comes at a cost. The set had a $700 price tag, but you know what? I will never have to repurchase a pot, and neither will my children, so that's a bargain on my books!
Meet the Cookware Dream Team
Allow me to break down my beloved cookware set. According to the good reputation, and I can testify to that, every piece is tri-ply constructed for heat distribution, it has a superior stick resistance, and they're compatible with all cooktops, including my favorite induction stoves.
You get an 8-inch and a 10-inch pan, which are super manageable thanks to the steel handles firmly bolted with stainless steel rivets. These are fantastic to sear thick steaks, cook stir-fries, sautéing veggies and whatnot. These are the ones I use the most.
You also get two saucepans of 3 and 8 litter capacities. They come with lids, which is very important. I cook sauce for pasta, warm up beans and soups and boil chicken in them for a chicken noodle soup. You might think you just need one saucepan but trust me, they have entirely different uses. The large one is perfect for slow-cooked meat and stews.
The two large pots and their lids complete the set, and oh boy, are they useful. The large one, an 8 liter, is particularly useful for sizeable crowds and comes in handy during the holidays. I've cooked everything from gumbos to New England clam chowder to feed an army in this beauty, so don't overlook it.
The bottom Line
Here's the deal. If you're a professional chef, you definitely need this set, and if you're a home cooking enthusiast like me, you need it even more! Everything gets cooked evenly, and they're even dishwasher safe. Did I mention they're gorgeous, right? Because they are.
Don't even worry about the price, I've seen more expensive sets, and they're not close in quality and versatility, and it lasts a lifetime pays for itself.
Elevate your cooking experience and go pro. Even if you just cook for your family — especially if you cook for your family! That's the story of my All-Clad set and how it made me happier than ever. What's your story?


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Date List GeneratorThis is a tool to generate a list of dates between two dates, for specific Days of the week. So if you want dates between 1/1/2016 and 3/1/2016, but ONLY Mon - Thursday, this tool lets you quickly generate those specific dates.1.) Enter a start date and end date (mm/dd/yyyy format only). 2.) Select / check the days of the week you want to include
Include the following Days...
Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
Count | Date | Day |
What is Random Date?
If you want to pick a random date for any function, this amazing tool would be the best choice for you. It is the simplest and easiest way for you if you are desiring to get multiple random dates. The tool will randomize a lot of random dates at once. you don't need to put any additional effort into getting more than 1 date. the production of random dates is unsorted and every date will be unique.
The random date picker tool can help you in many cases. Suppose, you want to go on a tour but you can't decide the date, you can get assistance with this tool. The random date picker will pick a suitable date for you. furthermore, you can use this amazing tool for getting the date for any other function.
Features of Date Generator:
Generate as many dates as you want
This tool is an amazing option for you, no matter you want only one date to be randomized or more than 1. You just have to enter the number in the given box.
Exclusive Real-world application
It is developed as per real-world requirements. It is directly connected to the calendar and provides your date according to your desiring month.
Responsive & error-free
This generator is developed in a way where you won't find any complications or errors. The dates will be randomized for you in a responsive mode.
Method to Generate a Random Dates:
It is not such a complicated tool; you can use it very easily by following a few steps.
- Join us on our exclusive website if you want to generate a random date.
- Now, search for the "Random Date Generator" and click on it.
- After clicking on it, you would get a tool in front of you. Let's enter the number in the given box. If you want three random dates, you have to type 3 in the box and click on the generate button.
- Once you have clicked over that button, the tool will provide you with random dates under that button.
- If you want more dates, you can do it again & again. You are allowed to use this superb generator at any time.
More Related Tools
For using more interesting tools visit our website.
Frequently Asked Question Random Date Picker:
For random dates between two dates, you can utilize the RANDBETWEEN function, together with the DATE function. This formula is then copied beneath from B5 to B11. The outcome is random dates between Jan 1, 2016, and Dec 31, 2016.
This form permits you to generate random calendar dates. The randomness comes from atmospheric noise, which for multiple purposes is better than the pseudo-random number algorithms typically utilized in computer programs.
This tool is committed to allowing you to generate random calendar dates. The randomness comes from atmospheric noise, which for a lot of purposes is better than the pseudo-random number algorithms that are normally used in computer programs.
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Custom packaging is specifically tailored to the product that your business is producing and shipping and is often times more economical than standard and generic commercial packaging. It aims to protect the commodity better than generic and standard packaging and is intended to fit the commodity to perfection. It uses a variety of unique materials that help to enhance the presentation of the product while also serving the purpose of protecting it from damage in transit. Custom packaging can be used for a variety of different products such as; food, perishable goods, medicines and medical devices and many more. There are specialized custom packaging services available in most cities throughout the country.
Many companies have started to use custom packaging to increase their brand visibility and customer loyalty by creating a sense of identity and association with their product or service. One reason that companies choose to use custom packaging is because they are able to maximize the benefits of social media marketing and create a sense of trust or loyalty with their customers by making them feel as though they are talking directly to a representative of the company when they receive these items. Social media marketing is a form of internet marketing that focuses on the creation of user-friendly, branded applications or websites that integrate various features and tools that allow a consumer or business to interact with one another in an interactive manner. In addition, the social media sites themselves provide content that consumers can read and interact with on a number of different levels.
In order to increase the level of interaction and brand awareness, a business owner will want to ensure that all packaging materials are consistent with the overall look and feel of the company as well as the logo or other branding elements. This way, the customer will have a sense of familiarity with the brand and feel as though they are dealing with and supporting the same entity when opening their custom package. When consumers receive goods from a company they do not recognize the brand or have any kind of relationship with, the feeling of trust or loyalty is lost. Custom packaging works to remedy this situation and helps to create brand awareness among the general public. The benefits of this practice can be staggering for both the consumer and the business owner.
Most companies understand that creating packaging that will hold up for years and provide a superior level of quality is a challenge. Fortunately, custom packaging works to solve this problem through the use of materials that are durable, sturdy and will not wear down over time. Standard packaging materials may no longer be able to meet the needs of the business and may even cause damage to the goods while in transit. As a result, consumers may have a less positive experience when they receive these goods and may develop a negative impression of the company in question.
For the business, a key benefit of using custom packaging is that it allows the company to control the costs associated with the project. In today's economic environment, cost control is crucial. By using a professional company to handle the design and development of their customized packaging, a business owner is able to keep expenses at a minimum and still benefit from a positive brand recall. This includes the value of a good package design and distribution. The packaging and distribution process has a direct impact on how customers perceive a company. Through the use of ready-made packaging, companies are able to avoid costly mistakes that can easily be avoided by addressing potential risks and providing adequate care and maintenance.
In summary, custom packaging provides a number of benefits to businesses. The increased efficiency in the production and distribution of goods leads to a more effective and profitable return on investment. Furthermore, a company can ensure that its brand is well-recognized and ensures optimal benefits and return on investment through the use of customized product packaging designs.


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Prince Harry's tea time meeting with Meghan Markle and the queen is doing little to suppress marriage rumors. The soon-to-be sixth in line to the throne reportedly sat down with Queen Elizabeth Thursday, Oct. 12 for an hour at Buckingham Palace.
According to a report from royal correspondent Richard Kay in the Daily Mail, the couple arrived in an SUV with blacked-out windows. Apparently, the vehicle choice is unusual in that royals typically want to be recognized.
The meeting was an informal one said to ease actress Markle's nerves and to keep a low profile for the couple. Such a set up is in line with royal standards but a departure from the relative openness that the couple has displayed throughout their courtship. The duo has been clear about their affection for one another, something that has never been seen in the royal family.
In September at the Invictus Games, Harry and Markle were photographed holding hands and kissing.
Related: Keep Up with the Royal Family
Royal Family Moves Beyond Claims of Discrimination, Selects Ghanaian Major As First Black Aide
Duchess Kate Middleton, Prince William Win Case Against French Mag Closer
Then, Markle uncharacteristically dished to Vanity Fair's October issue, "We're two people who are really happy and in love."
Comparatively, Kate Middleton did not talk about her relationship with Prince William until they were engaged.
When asked for comment on the Markle/Harry/Queen Elizabeth meeting, a spokesperson for Kensington Palace, where Harry resides, remained mum.
"We have refrained from commenting on all previous stories about Prince Harry introducing Meghan Markle to members of the royal family and therefore we have no comment," the spokesperson said in a statement to the Daily Mail.


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Track and Field Techniques: Discus and Shot Put
Genres - Sports & Recreation |
Run Time - 39 min. |
Share on
Synopsis by Betsy Boyd
Part of the Track and Field Techniques video series, which details the arena of track and field competition one event at a time, offering athletes professional advice, Track and Field Techniques: Discus and Shot Put focuses on the discus and shot put. Viewers learn how to use the glide technique, the rotary technique, and how to improve overall performance. Safety tips are also included.


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Monster Review-a-thon Goals and Updates
I am joining Kate and Kristen from the Book Monsters who are hosting a Review-a-thon this weekend to catch up on writing book reviews. There is also a Twitter chat today, Saturday February 23rd from 7pm to 9pm CST, 8pm to 10pm EST.
My Goals:
1. Write 3-5 book reviews this weekend. The last 10 books I have read needing review include:
* Here I Go Again by Jen Lancaster – Done, posted review here.
* Persuasion by Jane Austen
* Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
* The Pilot's Wife audiobook by Anita Shreve – Done, review posted here
* Lone Wolf audiobook by Jodi Picoult
* Unenchanted by Chandra Hahn
* Secrets She Left Behind by Diane Chamberlain
* The Alchemyst (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel) by Michael Scott
2. Participate in the Twitter chat – Done, met some helpful and experienced book bloggers
3. Comment on reviews/progress of other participants. – visited everyone from the sign-ups and going to make another round to see what participants have completed.
I love these opportunities to network with other bloggers and catch up on some tasks at the same time. If you'd like to join us, visit Kate from the Book Monsters to sign up. Hope to see you there!
What books would you like to hear more about? What books have you read that you still need to review? Let me know your thoughts and hope you will join in if you are a book blogger!


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Let me reveal an easy way for you to make money, it's something anyone can do, and while it won't make you rich it should definitely pay for a nice holiday each year and maybe cover all your Christmas presents too.
This opportunity involves answering questions and giving your opinions on specific subjects, like travelling and watching television, eating good food and drinking fine wine, and many thousands of other topics besides.
If you haven't guessed it already we're talking about paid surveys and, in particular, helping our readers differentiate between opportunities that will make them money and those that definitely won't.
Why there's an opportunity in paid surveys
Surveys are used to tell commercial and industrial giants what we, as consumers, like about their products (and what we don't like) while also revealing individual personal and economic characteristics to help survey organisers identify and grow their market share and profits.
So, drinks' companies want to know about your favourite soft drink, how much you're willing to pay for it, where you buy it and how often you drink it.
A tour operator might ask about your favourite holiday destination, and where you'd least like to travel, how much you earn and how much of that goes into your holiday fund.
In both cases the survey organiser will use your responses to plan improvements to their own goods and services and ascertain customer views about rival companies.
Today most surveys are completed online with a small fee, gift voucher or sometimes product samples offered to encourage the right people to respond. The "right" people are those whose interests and passions match the purpose of the survey, and whose views are worth paying for. This explains why all survey organisers and their agents ask potential respondents to provide a personal profile, highlighting gender and age, along with employment and social characteristics. Then when a new survey appears the organiser or agent scans profiles for respondents likely to benefit their research and weed out others that won't.
When you're chosen you'll usually receive an email telling you about the survey and inviting you to participate. You'll be given the website address for the survey and told how much you'll be paid and when. And that's it, you do the survey by choosing from a range of possible answers or by keying in your comments, wait to be paid, and while you're waiting, you do other surveys and build a nice pot of cash for the future.
And that's where the only real downside to this easy and enjoyable opportunity presents itself, because sometimes you'll have to wait weeks or months before your pot is big enough to warrant a payout.
That's because most surveys offer a few pounds maximum, which if paid after each assignment, would see survey organisers facing huge transaction fees.
As an example, most survey companies use PayPal where each transaction incurs a standard charge plus a percentage of the overall sum being paid. Over hundreds and thousands of individual respondents that standard charge on small payments represents a major overhead and eats heavily into organisers' profits, unlike paying the same transaction fee on bigger accumulated payouts.
This is why you need to consider surveys as a long-term proposition; not to fund the Christmas 2011 festivities, but to potentially pay for a few festive luxuries next time round.
Regular participants tell me surveys can generate £50 or £60 a week part-time, sometimes more, and they're a good way to make money during a lunch break or travelling on the train back home, and you should never run out of surveys to complete.
So rule number one for success is to treat paid surveys as a business, where you're continually seeking new opportunities and answering questions truthfully and on time, and so encouraging survey organisers to send more paid opportunities your way.
Genuine survey organisers that is, because, as with any easy way to make money from home, you will encounter scam companies promising well paid work in return for payment to join their membership sites for all the surveys you can handle each day!
Not a problem, because rule number two is never pay to locate survey organisers, real or bogus. Instead, rely on several quick and cost-free ways to find genuine surveys recommended by people already working in the field. To begin with go to http://tinyurl.com/6hrpeeo where you'll read recommendations and comments on genuine survey companies along- side notes on others to avoid.
Additionally, try hanging out in work-from-home and money-making forums looking for comments about paid surveys where members share their experiences, good and bad, and usually mention companies by name. But don't take one or two derogatory reports as factual, because people making those comments may not have completed their surveys correctly and that's why they haven't been paid, or otherwise they haven't reached the agreed payment level.
Other ways to spot genuine companies
– Key the name of the survey website or organising company into the search box at www.google.com, along with the word "scam", and if the opportunity is well known for not paying up or for taking member- ship fees without providing work you'll find enough comments to prove it.
– As with all opportunities you find and join, do the minimum work needed to warrant your first payment and, if your money arrives on time, continue with the company or website concerned but always make regular checks to spot potential problems before you fall victim to a scam.
How to get started
Start this easy opportunity right away by setting up a dedicated email address and, if you don't already have one, sign up for a PayPal account, which is how you'll usually be paid.
The dedicated email address will guarantee you see new surveys in your inbox immediately they arrive without being hindered by "non survey" messages.
When you find survey sites – through forums or from resources listed later – make sure you qualify to take part (based on age, location, etc.) and do another quick search for scam potential. If all goes well complete the profile and wait for further details and hopefully regular paid surveys too.
Once you feel comfortable completing surveys with a chosen outlet, sign up for more providers and, as each new contact builds its trust in you they'll send more online surveys and help you move closer and faster to a major payout.
Maximise your income from paid surveys
Once you start looking you'll find literally thousands of genuine opportunities, some better paid than others, and some easier, faster and also more enjoyable to complete.
Naturally, the perfect scenario is to focus on tasks that are enjoyable and take little time to complete, while also attracting the highest rewards. You do that by choosing tasks carefully and organising your time to complete as many high-paying assignments as possible.
These tips will help:
» Focus on two or three reliable companies, or sites, and spend most of your time completing assignments instead of constantly seeking new opportunities: Some surveys are promoted by several companies and survey sites, and registering with too many providers means you could end up completing the same survey several times and only being paid once.
» Work as quickly as possible without becoming stressed or making mistakes. Mistakes will lose you work with high-paying companies, stress can make you ill, and neither will benefit you financially. So work to a speed that suits you best and don't force yourself to work when you're tired or ill. Take constant breaks between surveys, a few minutes will do, and that way you'll always feel fresh and provide a good service.
» Do most of your work when it's quiet and you won't be distracted by children and telephone calls, for example, or your work will definitely suffer and you could lose assignments. Early morning when the rest of the family is asleep, or late at night when they've all gone to bed could be the perfect time to carry out your surveys.
» Be honest in your answers and opinions because lies and false entries will be detected and lose you work. That's because some surveys use software that can identify ambiguities and inappropriate answers.
» Some providers email offers to participants, others expect you to visit their site and apply to take a specific survey. Be sure you know how your chosen companies operate and look for emails from those who provide work that way, and apply for surveys where appropriate.
» Keep a note of surveys you've completed, who they were for, what incentives were promised and when those rewards should arrive. This will help you plan your finances and be useful for chasing late payments.
All in all, a very easy money-maker although unlikely to make you rich. But, by being organised you can easily find and carry out enough surveys to pay for some of life's little niceties you might other- wise be unable to afford.
Specific providers
Important: although we have carried out a partial check on sites listed below and found no particular problems, you must still do your own due diligence before carrying out paid work for any company. All details are up to date at the time of going to press but remember, the Internet is a fast-moving entity and URLs and advice can change without notice.


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Are you ready to buy a horse? 5 Essential Steps Before Considering Buying a Horse
Buying & Selling Beginners Advice
Horses For Sale in the UK Witham100 resultsHere at Horsemart, we have thousands of Horses and Ponies for sale, from Irish Sport Horses to Cobs and Thoroughbreds, within the South East, North East and South West or beyond. Whether you're searching for an All-rounder, Hacker or Show Jumper, or something more, we know you'll find what you're looking for with Horsemart! 4 year old PRE gelding ColourBay GenderGelding Height16 hands BreedAndalusian 4 year old PRE Gelding
Pre Passport
Lovely kind horse with established basics ... £ 6,410 Unspoilt 4 year old PRE ColourLiver Chestnut GenderStallion Height16 hands BreedAndalusian Unspoilt 4 year old PRE
Pre 4 year old.
16hh/162cms stallion
Wonderful model and just backed ... £ 30,770 Advanced dressage PRE ColourGrey GenderStallion Height16 hands BreedAndalusian Advanced Dressage PRE
7 years 1. 63cms/Stallion
Good X-rays and piro free.
Passage, piaffe, ... £ 19,660 Pretty PRE 16.1hh gelding ColourBlack GenderGelding Height16.1 hands BreedAndalusian Pretty PRE 16. 1hh Gelding
10 Year old 1. 66cms/16. 1hh gelding
Started his changes Spanish ... £ 13,250 5 year old PRE mare ColourBay GenderMare Height15.3 hands BreedAndalusian 5 year old PRE mare.
15. 3hh/161 Cms
Lovely temperament.
Brought on slowly and a kind and ... £ 6,450 Beautiful Palomino 4 year old ColourPalomino GenderStallion Height16 hands BreedAndalusian Beautiful Palomino 4 year old
Pre Stallion 16hh/1. 63cms.
Good X-rays and piro free.
Really ... £ 17,950 Beautiful 15'2 bay showjumping mare ColourBay GenderMare Height15.2 hands BreedIrish X X TB X Delilah is beautiful 15'2 bay mare. She has a very careful jump on her and never wants to knock a ... £ 15,000ONO Fantastic paces, huge walk 6yr old Hanovarian mare ColourBay GenderMare Height16.1 hands BreedHanoverian Classic diamond, 16. 1hh bay mare, rising 6yo by Classic Juan and the dam line is Weltmeyer. ... £ 15,750ONO Finnegan - The Ultimate All Rounder ColourGrey GenderGelding Height14.1 hands BreedConnemara Finnegan is the ultimate all rounder.
Will come with full wardrobe including S Series Kent and ... £ 7,500OVNO Stunning Grey Mare ColourGrey GenderMare Height16.1 hands BreedWarmblood Fynn has 3 beautiful paces, she has competed up to Inter 2 and is workIng at Grand Prix at home. ... £ 40,000ONO Genuine Little Pony ColourBay GenderGelding Height11.3 hands BreedWelsh X Louis is a genuine and willing little pony. Broken and lightly schooled by a small adult and a 9 ... £ 3,850ONO Lovely Little Leadrein Pony ColourPalomino GenderMare Height11.2 hands BreedDartmoor Perfect little leadrein and family pony. Lolly is a pleasure to have on the yard and great with the ... £ 3,500ONO Perfect all rounder ColourDapple Grey GenderGelding Height12.2 hands BreedIrish Sport Horse ~ frube - 128 - 7yr - gelding
~ perfect all rounder
~ Frube is easy to do in all ways, he is ... £ 7,000ONO Top class lead rein pony ColourPalomino GenderGelding Height10.2 hands BreedWelsh Sec A Very reluctant sale of our wonderful lead rein pony as sadly outgrown, Ember has been a member of ... £ 3,500 Brook Farm Stables Colour - Gender - Height0 hands Breed - Brook Farm offers livery and riding lessons for all ages and abilities.
Lessons, ... |


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It's just not practical to program a car to drive itself in every environment, given the nearly infinite range of possible variables involved. But, thanks to AI, we can show it how to drive. And, unlike your teenager, you can then see what it's paying attention to. With NVIDIA PilotNet, we created a neural-network-based system that learns to steer a car by observing what people do. But we didn't stop there. We developed a method for the network to tell us what it prioritized when making driving decisions. So while the technology lets us build systems that learn to do things we can't manually program, we can still explain how the systems make decisions.
"Think about why you recognize a face in a photo, and then try to break that down into a set of specific rules that you can program — you can't do it," says Urs Muller, chief architect for self-driving cars at NVIDIA. "The question thus becomes: 'Do we want to limit our solutions to only the things we can define with rules?'"


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PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- For the Philly Black Radical Collective, the slave memorial nestled in Independence Mall shows the paradox of American freedom.
"On the other side you have the slave quarters where people suffered and struggled every single day just to survive," explained the group.
This is the site the group chose to publicly announce its 13 demands for Philadelphia City Council and the mayor's office.
The first three are defunding the police budget by 20 percent, ending the criminalization of the protesters.
Also, removing all symbols of state violence such as statues.
"We understand that you can read those demands. It doesn't take a lot of figuring out how to implement these first three demands," said YahNé Ndgo, an organizer with the group.
City council says its already doing a lot of those things, pointing to its new 2021 budget released Thursday. It includes reducing police funding for the first time in over a decade by $33.3 million.
The Mayor's office also announced this week it's removing the statue of Christopher Columbus and both the mayor and police commissioner apologized for tear-gassing protestors on 676.
They also stated they're putting a moratorium on tear gas use on crowds.
The collective, however, says it wants more. Specifically, charges dropped for anyone who's been arrested while protesting for the Black Lives Matter movement.
"They can just remove all of those charges. They don't have to figure out how to work with the state, said Ndgo. "They have to figure out how to work with multiple agencies."
The group says it will be following its 13 demands with 13 days of action. The first one will be Sunday at Malcolm X Park where it will demand the release of political prisoners.


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Rob Norris, the head of Altadis U.S.A., is leaving the company to join Fontem Ventures, an e-cigarette company best known for its blu brand.
Both Altadis U.S.A. and Fontem Ventures are part of Imperial Brands, plc. Norris will join the company as the general manager of Canada for Fontem Ventures. He will make the transition on Aug. 1.
"Given his tenure here, the move to Canada is an important next step for Rob's professional career," said Javier Estades, head of Tabacalera USA, the parent company of Altadis U.S.A., in a press release.
Norris joined Altadis U.S.A. in 2011 as the sales and trade marketing director. He was then promoted to the head of JR Cigar and then promoted to his current role in 2017. He has been at Imperial Brands, plc for over two decades.
Altadis U.S.A. has announced that Paul Waller, head of sales, and Oliver Hyams, head of trade marketing, will report directly to Estades.
A replacement for Norris has not been announced.