Friday News: Has Twitpic been rescued?, Facebook’s algorithm change, National Book Award fiction long list, and Austenites get Guinness World Record
Twitpic Is No Longer Shutting Down – Although there have been no other details forthcoming, I’m hoping that TwitPic’s tweet today means that we won’t lose this vital support service for Twitter:
“We’re happy to announce we’ve been acquired and Twitpic will live on! We will post more details as we can disclose them.”
As long as they haven’t sold to Facebook… –Gizmodo
Facebook updates its algorithm (yet) again. Here’s what to expect. – Speak of the devil… here’s a surprise: Facebook has changed its algorithm again, this time in the hopes of making news stories more “timely” for users. There has been speculation that this move is a response to the inaccessibility of items related to Ferguson, and an attempt to compete better with Twitter’s immediacy when it comes to following major stories and events.
The goal of News Feed is to show the right content to the right people at the right time. We’re always listening to feedback from people who use Facebook to do a better job of this. We’ve heard feedback that some content is timely content such as breaking news or an update to a sports game – and that we could do a better job of showing this at the time it’s most important. Today’s update aims to help solve this issue. –Gigaom
Fiction Long List Announced for National Book Awards – The long list of adult fiction nominated for the National Book Award has been released, and I am personally excited to see that Rabih Alameddine’s An Unnecessary Woman has been nominated. Also interesting is the inclusion of Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats. Two of the books are set in Iowa, which seems like an odd coincidence (no disrespect to the state – my favorite candy store is there, and anyone who knows me knows I’m serious about candy).
Five finalists in four categories – young people’s literature, poetry, nonfiction and fiction – will be announced on Oct. 15, and the winners will be recognized at an awards gala on Nov. 19 that will be hosted by Daniel Handler, a.k.a Lemony Snicket. –New York Times
Jane Austen festival: Fans ‘reclaim costume record’ – 550 people dressed in Regency clothing and gathered at the Jane Austen Festival in Bath to hold on to the Guinness World Record for, well, most people in one place wearing Regency clothing.
To achieve the record the participants had to remain in position for a minimum of five minutes in full Regency attire with all those taking place with the necessary accessories to complete the outfit. –BBC
Presumably the actual record for number of people gathered in one place wearing Regency clothes happened some time during the Regency. If only someone had bothered to count it….
@Ros: LOL Ros. I was thinking the same thing!
Re: Regency clothing/world record- yeah, they need to post time and place guidelines ;-)
On an unrelated topic- it is Talk Like a Pirate Day- argggghhhh matey!