Flickr’s marketing department is taking care of publicizing what’s been added to the site, and how the design has changed. They’re real proud of it. So far, I haven’t seen anyone documenting what’s been taken away from Flickr users.
I’ve made a page just for that, here. I’ll be updating it as I learn more.
Title: The Raven, A Biography of Sam Houston
Author: Marquis James
Year: 1929
Publisher: University of Texas Press, Austin
ISBN 0-292-77040-5
View it on Amazon
View it on Google Books
Sam Houston on Wikipedia
This book was awarded the 1930 Pulitzer Prize for “Biography or Autobiography” (James is one of the very few people who’ve won multiple Pulitzers, and one of only eight who’ve won twice or more in the Biography category.) For most of the book, I kept wondering why it had won such a highly coveted award, but by the end the cumulative effect of the narrative was powerful.
It’s irritatingly written in contemporary style, which might have been easy to read in the early 1900s, but was difficult to read in the early 2000s. There are lots of words no longer commonly used, like puncheons, trace (a path or trail that has been beaten out by the passage of animals or people), and rooftrees. And that’s just from flipping a few pages.
Flickr holds a special place in my heart, at least compared to other internet sites. I’ve spent more time on Flickr than most people have spent on Facebook or Twitter — daily participation since I joined in Sept. 2005. Not only have I uploaded over 30,000 images to my photostream (most of them now non-public), but I’ve started about a dozen groups, half of which I still administer, and I’ve spent countless hours volunteering in the Help Forum, helping beginners learn their way around and helping old-timers troubleshoot technical issues.
Two months ago, the Flickr powers that be talked of “making Flickr awesome again”, and I blogged about what that might entail, kind of halfheartedly, not having any real confidence that Yahoo! would do the right thing. I laid out four simple points that would have made longtime users love the site again, and would help keep any newcomers, instead of driving them away.
Of course, they didn’t follow my advice.
“I thought the left loved freedom of the press and open government. I guess that’s only when ‘The Man’ is someone else.”
That’s what one commenter said on a news story about the federal government hoping to charge a journalist for publishing news. It’s an astute observation about the way our two-party political system works: each side makes the same accusations about the other, depending on who’s in power.
Commentary: A record Powerball jackpot isn’t a record to celebrate (Christian Science Monitor)
The editorial board of CSM concluded their piece with this:
Before the news media play up the next record-setting mega-lottery like Powerball, they may want to add these kinds of caveats in their reporting. It could deter people from rushing to the corner store to buy a lottery ticket.
“These kinds of caveats” makes it sound like there were multiple points made above. But there was only one, in the fourth paragraph: “And some get hooked — for years, draining personal savings and upsetting relationships.”
Following are some passages I underlined during a reading of To Sail Beyond The Sunset (1987) by Robert A. Heinlein, the last novel he published before dying in 1988:
“I remember Earth. I knew her when she was clean and green, mankind’s beautiful bride, sweet and lush and lovable… It is futile to mourn over the corpse of Earth, as silly as it would be to cry over an empty chrysalis when its butterfly has flown. But I am incurably sentimental and forever sad at how Man’s Old Home has changed.”
◊◊◊
“Censorship is never logical but, like cancer, it is dangerous to ignore it when it shows up.”
There is a school of thought, albeit a relatively unpopular one, that poor grammar or punctuation on printed signs should be corrected with a Sharpie or other tool, vigilante style.
In the News: Vigilante Copy Editor (New York Times)
And there are older instances, such as this one (The Virginian-Pilot).
Following are some passages I underlined during a reading of The Cat Who Walks Through Walls: A Comedy of Manners (1985) by Robert A. Heinlein:
“It does not do to encourage bad banners; one should retaliate, urbanely but firmly.”
In The News: Adobe starts subscription for Photoshop and Dreamweaver (BBC News)
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone; many software companies are moving in this direction. Instead of having to ship millions of boxes and discs every year when they upgrade the software, they’re just going to add the updates to the online “Creative Cloud” system. Any subscribers would automatically have them.
Following are some passages I underlined during a reading of I Will Fear No Evil (1970) by Robert Heinlein:
“…most people think of money as something to pay the rent. But a money man thinks of money in terms of what he can do with it.”
“…it’s impossible for a woman to lay it on too thick with a man. If you tell a man he’s eight feet tall and say it often enough, with your eyes wide and a throb in your voice, he’ll start stooping to go through seven-foot doors”
Flickr’s marketing department is taking care of publicizing what’s been added to the site, and how the design has changed. They’re real proud of it. So far, I haven’t seen anyone documenting what’s been taken away from Flickr users. I’ve made a page just for that, here. I’ll be updating it as I learn more.
Title: The Raven, A Biography of Sam Houston Author: Marquis James Year: 1929 Publisher: University of Texas Press, Austin ISBN 0-292-77040-5 View it on Amazon View it on Google Books Sam Houston on Wikipedia This book was awarded the 1930 Pulitzer Prize for “Biography or Autobiography” (James is one of the very few people who’ve[...]
Flickr holds a special place in my heart, at least compared to other internet sites. I’ve spent more time on Flickr than most people have spent on Facebook or Twitter — daily participation since I joined in Sept. 2005. Not only have I uploaded over 30,000 images to my photostream (most of them now non-public),[...]
“I thought the left loved freedom of the press and open government. I guess that’s only when ‘The Man’ is someone else.” That’s what one commenter said on a news story about the federal government hoping to charge a journalist for publishing news. It’s an astute observation about the way our two-party political system works:[...]
Commentary: A record Powerball jackpot isn’t a record to celebrate (Christian Science Monitor) The editorial board of CSM concluded their piece with this: Before the news media play up the next record-setting mega-lottery like Powerball, they may want to add these kinds of caveats in their reporting. It could deter people from rushing to the[...]
Following are some passages I underlined during a reading of To Sail Beyond The Sunset (1987) by Robert A. Heinlein, the last novel he published before dying in 1988: “I remember Earth. I knew her when she was clean and green, mankind’s beautiful bride, sweet and lush and lovable… It is futile to mourn over[...]
There is a school of thought, albeit a relatively unpopular one, that poor grammar or punctuation on printed signs should be corrected with a Sharpie or other tool, vigilante style. In the News: Vigilante Copy Editor (New York Times) And there are older instances, such as this one (The Virginian-Pilot).
Following are some passages I underlined during a reading of The Cat Who Walks Through Walls: A Comedy of Manners (1985) by Robert A. Heinlein: “It does not do to encourage bad banners; one should retaliate, urbanely but firmly.”
In The News: Adobe starts subscription for Photoshop and Dreamweaver (BBC News) This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone; many software companies are moving in this direction. Instead of having to ship millions of boxes and discs every year when they upgrade the software, they’re just going to add the updates to the online[...]
Following are some passages I underlined during a reading of I Will Fear No Evil (1970) by Robert Heinlein: “…most people think of money as something to pay the rent. But a money man thinks of money in terms of what he can do with it.” “…it’s impossible for a woman to lay it on[...]
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