(Referencing the story found on ABC News and the NY Post.) The New York city public school system is trying to make tests less “biased” and less likely to “evoke unpleasant emotions” in school children. One of the ways they’re doing this is banning a list of words, including birthdays, junk food, Halloween, dinosaur, dancing,[...]
Reminded today by my friend Richard’s blog entry, I figured it’s time to describe my current “lottery fantasy”. As I commented on his entry, my earliest such childhood dreams centered around the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes, which was advertised often in those days and sent plenty of junk mail to our house. Most likely anyone[...]
One of my readers recently asked why I used “[expletive deleted]” in place of the surname of one current Presidential candidate. It’s a fair question and deserves a little more explanation here. Currently, one U.S. presidential candidate (let’s call him Rick) has said things — and believes things — that are so offensive to me[...]
In his efforts to win over the die-hard right-wing conservatives, presidential hopeful Rick [expletive deleted] has promised to rid America of “hard-core pornography”. Rick [expletive deleted] declares war on pornography
Every day, some photography-oriented blog or discussion group or club asks the questions: “Is it okay to edit photos?” and “If so, how much editing is okay?” First, understand that photography itself has only two actual rules: 1) There must be some form of light, and 2) There must be some device affected by light[...]
[Originally blogged on March 3, 2012; now completely revamped to make more sense and be more helpful.] Someone recently asked me: “How do I know which photos are keepers?” In photography lingo, “keeper” refers to the images you don’t delete, the ones you show to others. Browsing your friends’ Facebook albums, you’ll quickly see that[...]
Inspired by a “how to” post on a photography blog, I decided to build my own light shed out of easily found and inexpensive items. I was happy with the results. Here, I’ll detail my process and why I went this route. (7 images after the jump)
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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