The quick answer to the question posed in the title is, “Maybe,” but the more relevant question to ask is, “Will people get mad at you if you take their picture?” The answer to that is, “Mostly not, and you’ll probably be able to tell in advance when folks don’t want their pictures taken.” Now,…
“Come and listen to my story about a man named Steve (McCurry) poor (world-traveling, cover-page-earning, National Geographic) picture-taker with some photos up his sleeve. And then one day he was shootin’ at some fool, when down from the sky came that editing tool. Photoshop that is, red line crossed, big festuche*.” So, stop me if…
Art / Literature / Poetry
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on This Blog Intentionally Blank in 2012, and after well over 100,000 views, it has been updated and posted here. It should already be evident to all of you that finding the absolute best of anything as subjective as writing is impossible. However, in an idealistic world, it…
I haven’t been posting to this blog — or any other blogs — in years. Frankly, it is because people no longer read. But there’s a greater issue involved. Critical thinking has devolved to being mass thinking. We are expected to follow trends in our beliefs, to pick a tribe and follow that selected tribe’s…
Once upon a time, on a WOW Air flight from Reykjavik, Iceland to Baltimore, USA, a twenty-something man named Abraham turned to the totally doesn’t look forty-something woman in the next seat and said, “I wish I could go back to the eighties [or before] and experience what it was like to see the Star…
Anyone who’s ever seen my photography probably knows that I strongly prefer color to black and white. I have written extensively on why I do before, so I won’t repeat those arguments in their entirety here. Suffice it to say that there are three camps when it comes to street photography: those who believe “pure”…
Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg My rating: 5 of 5 Stars If you are a writer, there is a sadness in completing a masterful work. It is that surety, the cold knowledge that you will never write anything so important, or so simply. That is my unfiltered reaction to having completed Dying Inside. Silverberg filled…
I am sad to say that most of the books I’ve read lately have been examples of disappointing science fiction. That in itself isn’t surprising. Loving sci-fi is like developing a craving for avocados. Yeah, it can be amazing in small doses, but you’d be amazed how quickly the green mush gets tiresome. See, there…
What if you read one of the “best ever” books in your favorite genre, and you don’t like it? Does it make you a bad person? Perhaps there is that small, dim voice whispering that you are a crass peon who has no aesthetic sense. That could be true, of course, but it likely is…
Men, particularly successful ones, have had the advantage over the years of having been able to gain distinguishment as they age, while women merely age. Now, I know that your immediate reaction might have been for you to be stumble over the word distinguishment rather than note what I said. Let me assure you; I…
Editor’s Note: This article was first presented in two parts on the blog This Blog Blank in August 2017. It is being shown here in its entirety. For longer than I have been writing, I have been reading quotes from writers on writing. Some are clever, some schmaltzy, a few invaluable, and quite a few…
Was Jordan the really the GOAT? Did he deserve the title and adoration? We take a different approach to the debate and evaluate the best in NBA history on the basis of Win Shares per Game.
Former designer to Michelle Obama says she declines designing for the new first lady.
Researchers at the Center for Population Biology, University of California, Davis, published a research paper on 8 November 2016, that sheds new light on the hybridization between modern humans and Neanderthals. Entitled “The Strength of Selection against Neanderthal Introgression,” the study acknowledges the sexual mixing of human and Neanderthal populations but notes that “on average,…
The 79 Percent 