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The Little Thread Which Grew - the Apollo '73 to Everything But

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Hatshepsut

Crusader
Maybe he joined a mystery cult of castrati? Minimal adoption by judeo-christian, but popular with at least one UFO Cult.

Zinj

Well, cults like Heaven's Gate are normally and sadly just a problem to themselves.....unlike the cult of testosterone which dominates everything.
 
In Smartphone Era, Point-and-Shoots Stay Home


SAM GROBART, On Saturday December 4, 2010, 2:53 am EST

Ariel Dunitz-Johnson, a 30-year-old illustrator in San Francisco, bought a point-and-shoot camera in May. But in July, she bought a smartphone, with a camera built in.

Soon, whenever she wanted to take a picture, she found herself reaching for the smartphone, a Droid Incredible. She barely uses her point-and-shoot, a Panasonic DMC-LX3.

“It’s much easier to share those pictures with my friends,” she explained, through social networks or e-mail. “With my point-and-shoot, I have to plug it into my computer and upload the photos. It’s just a few more steps than I want to take.”

The point-and-shoot camera, which has been a part of American households since 1900, when George Eastman introduced the Kodak Brownie, is endangered. Like other single-use devices — the answering machine, the desktop calculator, the Rolodex — it is being shoved aside by a multipurpose device: the smartphone and its camera, which takes better snapshots with each new model.

Cameras, mostly point-and-shoots, are still found in 82 percent of American households, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. But for many consumers, the point-and-shoot they have now may be the last they ever own as they favor the camera in their smartphone. It’s close at hand whenever a photo opportunity arises, and can be used to instantly e-mail and share pictures. And it has an expanding menu of photo apps, well beyond the landscape and panoramic settings on a point-and-shoot, that can be used to easily manipulate the images.

Point-and-shoots do have certain advantages over smartphone cameras, including features like image stabilization and larger lenses and sensors. That does not matter to consumers like Emily Peterson, a 28-year-old graphic designer who lives in Brooklyn and who bought an iPhone 4 in July. “One day I just thought, ‘Wow, I never have my camera with me, when I used to carry it around all the time,’ ” she said. “It’s just one less thing for me to remember, one less thing to carry.”

Geoffe Haney, a 44-year-old collections manager at a museum in Bay City, Mich., who also owns an iPhone 4, said the device was “my camera first, my phone second.” He added, “I have 40 photo apps on my iPhone — it’s like having 40 different cameras with you all the time.”

The sales figures tell the story. While smartphone sales in the United States continue to skyrocket, unit sales of point-and-shoot cameras fell nearly 16 percent from 2008, according to the market research firm NPD Group. That corresponds to a decline of 24 percent in dollars, to $1.9 billion, from $2.4 billion.

Even when the recession eased over the last year, sales of point-and-shoots fell. At the same time, sales of more powerful cameras like S.L.R.’s, with advanced features like interchangeable lenses and manual settings, have increased, by nearly 29 percent in dollars since 2009, according to NPD.

Analysts say this suggests a split in the market, as casual shooters remain happy with the convenience of their smartphones, and dedicated enthusiasts seek out the more advanced cameras. And they predict that the point-and-shoot market will drop further over all.

“The compact camera market is pretty stagnant,” said Christopher Chute, an analyst at the market researcher IDC. “The ubiquity of a 5- or 10-megapixel camera phone in your pocket is hard to overcome.”

David C. Lee, the senior vice president at Nikon, acknowledged, “The market’s peaked a little.” Still, he said he was not worried. “It’s going to go up and down, but it will stay solid,” he said. Echoing other camera makers, he said the smartphone camera would encourage more picture-taking generally, leading to more demand for traditional cameras.

But the smartphone has proved irresistibly easy to use, especially for people who exchange vast numbers of photos online.

Facebook says that since the site was founded in 2004, its users have uploaded more than 50 billion photos, making that feature one of its most popular. Flickr, the photo-sharing site, says users add more than three million photos to its inventory every day. Yet Flickr’s data shows that the most popular camera among its 55 million users is a smartphone, Apple’s iPhone 3G. Not a single point-and-shoot makes it into its top five. The remaining spots are occupied by S.L.R.’s from Canon and Nikon.

Cameras began showing up in phones almost a decade ago. For much of that time, image quality was akin to grainy shots of U.F.O.’s or Sasquatch. In the last few years, though, more powerful processors and better sensors have improved image quality to levels many consumers find acceptable.

According to a February report from the camera industry group PMA, film cameras were not quite extinct until 2004, when most digital models took pictures with resolutions greater than four megapixels — allowing users to print high-quality images in conventional sizes. The report predicted that camera-phone use would “increase significantly” once those devices achieved a similar resolution.

The iPhone, various Android models and phones on Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 operating system have already crossed that threshold.

Even some professionals are advocates of picture-taking with smartphones.

And while dedicated cameras have long had settings and modes to adjust the quality of the picture taken, smartphones have apps like Hipstamatic, Camera Bag and OldCamera that allow users to apply filters — black and white, sepia, vintage — to images, often just by poking a finger.

“The apps make things look so professional,” said Ms. Peterson, the graphic designer. “I just came back from a trip and my pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge look like a postcard. I don’t think my old camera could even have done something like that.”

Glyn Evans, 42, from Yeovil, England, said, “The apps were a turning point for me.” Mr. Evans, who works in information technology and founded the Web site Iphoneography.com, dedicated to photography taken with Apple’s iPhone, added, “I have a camera, but it’s gathering dust.”

Mark Romanek, director of the coming film “Never Let Me Go” and an avid photographer, has also abandoned his point-and-shoot.

His Web site, markromanek.posterous.com, features his photography, all of which was taken with an iPhone and using camera apps like OldCamera. He likes the “lo-fi” quality to the images, but also likes always having his camera at hand.

“When a camera of this type is always in your pocket,” he wrote via e-mail, “every moment seems like a potential photo-op.”
 

purple haze

Patron with Honors
on another tangent borrowed from my Facebook

This is a bit like saying anything good Hubbard wrote was stolen from others.

Thats not the point.

If the parable of the good Samaritan was not original to Jesus he did well
by restating it in a brilliant way.

Number of times over..... and all that.

I couldn't care less about LRH nude [he didn't appear to be at all anywhere near his body, drawing from my past perception...even when he put on his yellow raincoat and yellow rain hat and put his burly right arm around my shoulders and held me steady and close and walked me from his desk, where I was temporarily freaking out about the Apollo ship which was stuck going in circles in the huge storm with gigantic waves crashing onto the lower deck as we went aside the waves; guiding me on up the stairs, walking/talking with me until I was feeling comfortably safe amongst the chaos...up to the bridge where he positioned me, directing me to fully focus by reading the fathometer blips..while he took charge and saved the day and all our necks in one quick instant] that's the Ron I knew and respected and will never forget...those indelible moments in time wherein I experienced true serenity of beingness in a crisis, thankfully imparted to me and on which energy memory I thrive to this very day].:p

and, back to nudity, I do find it very sexy when a man can fully BE a man.:eyeroll:

LOL my men don't need Viagra with me around! LOL:coolwink:

cheeky candy here and enjoying IT even more than ever before at 64!
:happydance:
 

purple haze

Patron with Honors
bb

I couldn't care less about LRH nude [he didn't appear to be at all anywhere near his body, drawing from my past perception...even when he put on his yellow raincoat and yellow rain hat and put his burly right arm around my shoulders and held me steady and close and walked me from his desk, where I was temporarily freaking out about the Apollo ship which was stuck going in circles in the huge storm with gigantic waves crashing onto the lower deck as we went aside the waves; guiding me on up the stairs, walking/talking with me until I was feeling comfortably safe amongst the chaos...up to the bridge where he positioned me, directing me to fully focus by reading the fathometer blips..while he took charge and saved the day and all our necks in one quick instant] that's the Ron I knew and respected and will never forget...those indelible moments in time wherein I experienced true serenity of beingness in a crisis, thankfully imparted to me and on which energy memory I thrive to this very day].:p

and, back to nudity, I do find it very sexy when a man can fully BE a man.:eyeroll:

LOL my men don't need Viagra with me around! LOL:coolwink:

cheeky candy here and enjoying IT even more than ever before at 64!
:happydance:

Hey Terril,

my mom was flying Piper Cubs at 19, with me in her tummy in Santa Susana [near Simi Valley]!:clap:
I got my private pilot's license at Burbank airport in 1973 at 27 in 40.3 hours from the Flying Dutchman. LOL:omg:

I only fly low wing Cherokee, Piper Cubs etc, while my younger sister [the flight attendant at 62!] will only fly the high wing Cessna. I like to see the sky, she likes to look down on everything.:yes:

I like to think that I inspired Alan to get his private pilot's license. :thumbsup:He flew me up to Elma Washington and to other missions of his, on our flight when he first got his pilot's license, and introduced me to the concept of the mile high club. fair exchange, I think...I love being competitive with an able man, as you well know.:happydance:
 
I couldn't care less about LRH nude [he didn't appear to be at all anywhere near his body, drawing from my past perception...even when he put on his yellow raincoat and yellow rain hat and put his burly right arm around my shoulders and held me steady and close and walked me from his desk, where I was temporarily freaking out about the Apollo ship which was stuck going in circles in the huge storm with gigantic waves crashing onto the lower deck as we went aside the waves; guiding me on up the stairs, walking/talking with me until I was feeling comfortably safe amongst the chaos...up to the bridge where he positioned me, directing me to fully focus by reading the fathometer blips..while he took charge and saved the day and all our necks in one quick instant] that's the Ron I knew and respected and will never forget...those indelible moments in time wherein I experienced true serenity of beingness in a crisis, thankfully imparted to me and on which energy memory I thrive to this very day].:p

and, back to nudity, I do find it very sexy when a man can fully BE a man.:eyeroll:

LOL my men don't need Viagra with me around! LOL:coolwink:

cheeky candy here and enjoying IT even more than ever before at 64!
:happydance:
and on the male side, I got my Masters Degree in Cunilinguistics at a ripe and early age. I'm definitely post doctorate now.
 

lkwdblds

Crusader
I am handicapped, only hold a Bachelor's in Braille Anatomy.

and on the male side, I got my Masters Degree in Cunilinguistics at a ripe and early age. I'm definitely post doctorate now.

Carmelo, I am not in a league with you or Candy but I was fortunate enough to take a coed course of study in Braille Anatomy! The theory was sort of dry and boring but the course really had a great Laboratory section to it. You never really knew who your lab partner was but you sure got to know them pretty well. Also, far from being dry, the Lab portion of the course was full of various fluids.

I loved my intro class, Braille Anatomy 101 so much that I took everything they had to offer and received my Bachelor's degree. I was going to enroll for post graduate work but my diploma was mailed to my house and my ex wife read it and called the Braille Institute and cancelled my application to their Grad school.

P.S. - The Braille Anatomy was the only place where you could grope members of the opposite sex and receive academic credits for it. Would anyone on this thread be interested in either starting or participating in such a course of study?
Lakey
 

Terril park

Sponsor
Hey Terril,

my mom was flying Piper Cubs at 19, with me in her tummy in Santa Susana [near Simi Valley]!:clap:
I got my private pilot's license at Burbank airport in 1973 at 27 in 40.3 hours from the Flying Dutchman. LOL:omg:

I only fly low wing Cherokee, Piper Cubs etc, while my younger sister [the flight attendant at 62!] will only fly the high wing Cessna. I like to see the sky, she likes to look down on everything.:yes:

I like to think that I inspired Alan to get his private pilot's license. :thumbsup:He flew me up to Elma Washington and to other missions of his, on our flight when he first got his pilot's license, and introduced me to the concept of the mile high club. fair exchange, I think...I love being competitive with an able man, as you well know.:happydance:

Don't think we were competitive. Just having fun. :)

[ bet that gets tongues wagging]
 
... He flew me up to Elma Washington and to other missions of his, on our flight when he first got his pilot's license, and introduced me to the concept of the mile high club. fair exchange, I think...I love being competitive with an able man, as you well know.:happydance:

Two questions, Candy

A. How "conceptual" was this introduction? :whistling:

B. Who was flying the god d@mn plane!!!!


Mark A. "Worry Wart" Baker :omg:
 

Hatshepsut

Crusader
Were those Hawaiin renditions of hers in the repetoire of her early days in the bath houses. What fun!

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bette-midler593.jpg


http://dancerindc.blogspot.com/2008/07/icons-for-gay-men.html
 
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