Author Archives: Shawn E. Bell

Activities, Adventures, National Parks

Yosemite – Tioga Road OPEN!

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

It’s a good news/bad news situation.

Tioga Road at Yosemite National Park is open. That’s the good news. The bad news is that Tioga Road at Yosemite National Park is open.

Normally, snowplows take to the road right around tax time to begin clearing it. Clearing usually takes a couple of months – depending on snowpack – so the road generally opens sometime around the end of May, or as late as the middle of June. Because the snowpack is 50% lighter than usual, the road is opening early this year.

Tioga Road, a popular crossing of the Siera Nevada, is part of State Highway 120. From Wikipedia: Continue reading →

Writing

Ernest Hemingway’s papers coming to America from Cuba

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

According to the AP, the Finca Vigia Foundation is working with Cuba to preserve and digitize papers left by Papa in Cuba after his passing in 1961.

More than 2,000 items have been digitized and sent to the United States.  This enhances the collection of 3,000 documents – including a manuscript with an alternate ending to “For Whom the Bell Tolls” as well as corrected proofs of “The Old Man and the Sea” – to include passports showing where the Nobel Prize-winning novelist traveled, as well as personal correspondence.

From the AP:

“…On Monday at the U.S. Capitol, U.S. Rep. James McGovern of Massachusetts and the Boston-based Finca Vigia Foundation announced that 2,000 digital copies of Hemingway papers and materials will be transferred to Boston’s John F. Kennedy Library…”

Ernest Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was a Nobel Prize laureate, author, and adventurer. His writing style continues to be a strong influence many writers, and the adventures he had through two World Wars, in Africa, as an ex-patriate, and as a journalist would become the stuff of legend. Continue reading →

eBook, Self Publishing, Writing

FINALLY! A Publisher Figures Out That DRM Is Useless!

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

c|net Australia has just put up an article “Tor Books: piracy not an issue despite lacking ebook DRM” that state what I and others have been preaching for years.

From the article:

“One year after Tor launched its DRM-free store, the publisher has said that there has been “no discernible increase” in piracy.”

On April 25, 2012, Tor Books UK removed DRM from all of their ebooks.  According to a blog post by Julie Crisp on the Tor Books site, “We made this decision in conjunction with our sister company in the US, for our shared brand imprint. It was something that we’d been exploring for quite a while and a move that we felt committed to for our particular area.”

DRM is copy protection added to ebooks and other media by publishers and retailers supposedly to prevent piracy.  It assumes that the person legitimately buying the media from the retailer is a thief.  As a purchaser, I find this kinda insulting; if I was a thief, I wouldn’t be buying the work in the first place.  Duh!

Continue reading →

Interesting Places

Curious Traveler Visits the Integratron

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

The Integratron is a building – or a ‘device’ – built entirely without nails in Landers, California, near Joshua Tree.  It was designed by  aeronautic engineer George van Tassel, who finished the main structure in 1959, but left the building unfinished at the time of his death in 1978.

The story of the building of the structure and it’s funding makes for interesting reading, as does the history of its dilapidation until it was finally purchased by the Karl sisters – Joanne, Nancy, and Patty – and restored, with the upper structure finally completed in the early 21st century.  They now promote the Integratron as an “acoustically perfect structure” and state that the building is “currently being explored in the areas of Science, Architecture, Neuroacoustics, Music, Energy healing, Alternative health and Spirituality.” Continue reading →

Dead Tree Books, eBook, Writing

BBC News reports that self-publishing is a ‘wonderful phenomenon’

Posted on by Shawn E. Bell

BBC News is reporting that 2012 was a record year for the UK publishing industry.

The Publishers Association Statistics Yearbook reported total revenues of £3.34B with digital sale hitting £411M, and sales of physical books coming in at £2.9B.

“Self-publishing has been a wonderful phenomenon,” said Richard Mollett, chief executive of The Publishers Association. “It has thrown up a great new interest in writing and reading.”

You can hear the whole bit from the Today programme HERE.

You can visit the Publishers Association HERE.