Higher Learning ...

At tumbler a former student shares a collection of daily rants and rages of one of his professors. The daily comments last updated in March 2011 we're given by an unknown photography professor from an unknown university who was simply known as Roma. However his comments are full of insight (and insult) or as quoted "embedded in them are bits and pieces of truth." 

Although as entertaining we find Roma I must WARN (NSFW) he uses quite strong language. Also some would say his comments are NOT politically correct therefor might offend.

For example and because they are funny ...

"Don’t you dare go to Chinatown. Leave the f**king Chinese alone.
   ~ Roma going on about who we cannot photograph."

"Do you know what happens when you give white kids a camera? They come back with photos of little black kids throwing up gang signs. True story. When I was teaching at Yale, every single privileged motherf**ker went out to a poor neighborhood and came back with photos of little kids throwing up gang signs. I didn’t even know what they were doing. I thought they all had arthritis."

"Ugh. Just by looking around, I think none of you should procreate."
 

• Sh.t my Photography Professor Says ~ So, I am taking a photography class. My professor is legitimately insane / legitimately brilliant. This is a tumblr devoted to his rants and rages. Embedded in them are bits and pieces of truth. But be warned: most of it is bullshit.

Source: PetaPixel

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Youtube, Twitter and Facebook to Join Force ...

... and this is their NEW Logo, Banner  ...

Source: Cute Girls Hairstyles 

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The Dismal State of Camera Industry

Michael Reichmann ~ The Luminous Landscape

Why the Camera Industry is in the Dumper and What Can be Done About it

• "A funny thing happened on the way to the future
  the entire camera industry got blindsided"
• "Camera and Lens sales suck"
• "The question is ~ Why?"
• "Sad to say, I believe that we have witnessed the passing of an era"
• "The growth of digital imaging ... has now plateaued"  
• "But, don't despair" ~ continue

Related: LensVid Exclusive: What Happened in 2013?

   

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The Most Earth-like Planet yet Discovered

Dan Vergano for National Geographic

Kepler Telescope Discovers Most Earth-Like Planet Yet

"A nearly Earth-size planet orbits in a star's habitable zone, detected by astronomers using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope. Launched in 2009 with the goal of finding another Earth, the $600-million Kepler spacecraft has discovered more than 960 planets orbiting nearby stars. Half a dozen of those seem to be rocky, like Earth, and have orbits in the habitable zone around their star, but the newly discovered world, named Kepler-186f, is the closest in size to Earth ~ Dan Vergano"

   

Artist's depiction shows Kepler-186f
Illustration by NASA/JPL ~ Caltech/T. Pyle






Related: 

• Goldilocks worlds: just right for life? ~ National Geographic

Found by: Bill J. at Facebook

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11th Annual Smithsonian Photography Contest

     .
From over 50,000 entries the finalists selected were a total of 60 photos nominated for awards in six categories, including the natural world, travel, people, Americana, altered images, and a new category, mobile [phone]. What is interesting is the fact it is a photo contest where we the people, us plebeians get to vote the winner. As opposed to a "bunch of stuffy old farts out of touch with the world (just kidding) deciding a photographers fate. Kidding aside I was rather impressed with all the images in this contest sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute and I hope everyone enjoys them as much as I did.

Head on over to vote for the readers choice winner

• Announcing Our 11th Annual Photo Contest Finalists

 
Related: The Smithsonian 12th Annual Photo Contest will open May 15, 2014; the deadline for our 2nd Annual In Motion Video Contest is May 31, 2014.

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National Geographic Live! : Amy Toensing: The Aboriginal Homeland

National Geographic

Published on Mar 3, 2014
21:24min

 

Through her stunning photography, Amy Toensing touches upon the Aboriginal Australians' cultural struggle, but celebrates these indigenous people's unique way of life and their connection to their ancestral lands. ~ http://youtu.be/Y4PMZtRYmMs ~YouTube

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Outbreaks of Measles and Other Vaccine Preventable Illnesses

Measles Virus
Wikimedia Commons

Health and Medicine

Dear parents, you are being lied to

April 9, 2014 ~ by Anonymous

Quote: "In light of recent outbreaks (About.com) of measles (WiKi) and other vaccine preventable illnesses, and the refusal of anti-vaccination advocates to acknowledge the problem, I thought it was past time for this post ~ Anonymous"

"Dear parents,

     You are being lied to. The people who claim to be acting in the best interests of your children are putting their health and even lives at risk."

"They say that measles isn’t a deadly disease.

     But it is".

"They say that chickenpox isn’t that big of a deal.

     But it can be.

"They say that the flu isn’t dangerous.

     But it is.

"They say that whooping cough isn’t so bad for kids to get.

     But it is."

"They say that vaccines aren’t that effective at preventing disease.

    But 3 million children’s lives are saved every year by vaccination, and 2 million die every year from vaccine-preventable illnesses"

.: continued :.

Related: 

• Measles Outbreak Traced Back To A Single Unvaccinated Child

"The great thing about science
is it is true whether you believe it or not"

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Canon's "Dual Pixel AF"

Quote: FALK LUMO "So, Canon launched the Canon 70D digital SLR camera 2013, July 2, two days ago. It includes an autofocus technology named "Dual Pixel CMOS AF" which promises to introduce high-speed autofocus performance to live view shooting and movie recording which previously would have required a phase detect AF module, at least in lower light situations.

I believe that this innovation looks much more innocent than it actually is. Here is why.

.: continued :. 

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RIP: Windows XP

The Story Behind the Wallpaper We'll Never Forget
Published on Apr 8, 2014
MicrosoftNL at Youtube

"From today on Microsoft will no longer support Windows XP. The one thing everybody will always remember of Windows XP is desktop image 'Bliss', with it's green rolling hills and bluer than blue sky. Doesn't the most viewed picture of all times asks for a worthy goodbye? We certainly think so! That's why we hopped on a plane to Los Angeles and went to visit the photographer Charles O'Rear. He told us the incredible story behind the famous desktop image of Windows XP"

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The True Reasons for a Full Frame Camera

White Paper

Version v1.0, Jun 27, 2012 by LumoLabs (fl)

Abstract

  

"Full frame photo cameras are a recurring theme in considerations about the best system camera for a given task. By full frame, we mean a camera with a full 24 mm x 36 mm sized capturing device. 

This paper tries to give general criteria to decide when a full frame camera would be the best option. As it turns out, there are a number of ambitious situations where full frame is indeed the most cost-efficient or only option. Whereas in other situations, a smaller sensor camera (e.g. a camera with a 1.5x-cropped frame of 16 mm x 24 mm APSC size) can be more cost efficient. This paper tries to quantify the corresponding regimes where one or the other format would be more appropriate."

.: continued :.

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The Slanted Lens, Six Digital Cameras Compared

An interesting comparison video. Disregarding the popularity of the iPhone or iPad the BIG question is, how does their image quality compare to a number of top quality DSLRs? Granted all the top quality cameras shown in this video we're Full-frame DSLRs I'm more curious. How does the iPhone and iPads compare to Crop Sensor (APS-C) Cameras? Although I think it pointless to criticize after the fact but given their popularity they could have included at least one APS-C camera into the lineup.

• Source: Comparing 6 Cameras ~ The Slanted Lens

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Whimsical New York

© 2013 Josh Rossi Photography

Artists and even their audience need to know occasionally when to STFU. This is especially true when they attempt to put into words the abstract and surreal. Now I've said it I'll "STFU" and let this guy, Josh Rossi's ART speak.

• Photoshop Composite of 300+ Hours & 1000 Layers, Whimsical New York ~ press
• Composite Planet ~ Josh Rossi's Website
• YouTube channel is full of excellent tutorials by Josh Rossi

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