Yesterday my Flickr homepage changed for the better. Large images of the latest uploads from my friends and contacts are displayed, and there are other big changes under the hood.

Before yesterday, users of their free accounts were only allowed to upload up to 200 lower resolution images. All that has changed. Free accounts now include one terabyte of storage space for hi res images. Pro users still have unlimited space but a terabyte will display one whopping number of photos. They raised the limit for videos from 90 seconds to 180 too but that is still pretty paltry.

Slide shows now feature a very nice pan and scan effect.

It is being reported City of Knoxville and University of Tennessee officials are discussing "the possibility of locating a new performance venue for UT’s Clarence Brown Theatre Company on the iconic site of the 1982 fair." As is many times the case for UT, the Clarence Brown theater building is in need of repairs. The new UT student center under development is also introducing accessibility and parking problems. They didn't think of these issues when planning the new UT student center?

The City of Knoxville's downtown is seriously lacking in park space (green space, water features, open space, a piece of ground in or near a city or town kept for ornament and recreation).

Who knows what is being considered for this project. Whatever it may be, it should not be to eliminate any open space at the World's Fair Park site.

Massive, deadly tornado. Multiple fatalities feared at elementary school, widespread devastation...

KFOR-TV live updates...

Nashville's WSMV has been practicing the lost of art of journalism. This is how charters are able to game the system to their advantage.

WSMV Channel 4

The Billboard Awards show started out strong with Bruno Mars and went swiftly downhill from there until the very end when Prince blew the roof off. I fast forwarded through most of the rest of the awfulness.

Parsons Brinckerhoff mailed notices announcing TDOT will host a Community Briefing regarding a change in the route for the Pellissippi Parkway Extension, Alternative A. An environmentally sensitive area, that apparently must be avoided, was found during further studies of the area. The route will be changed near the Kensington Place mobile home community, either 150 feet west into the community or 300 feet east away from the community.

The meeting will be held:

Thursday, May 30, 2013
5 - 7 PM
Rio Revolution Church
3425 E. Lamar ALexander Parkway,
Maryville, TN 37804
(Approx. 10 miles from the airport, 4 miles past Blount Memorial Hospital, out TN-73 E/US-321 N/E Lamar Alexander Pkwy towards Townsend, on the left. If you get to the road going to Heritage High School you have gone too far.)

It was a lousy day to be transporting a rescue what with storms and rain in buckets but we took this little boy home.

At least temporarily.

if you do two things at once, both efforts suffer

Digital distractions (email, texting, tweeting, social media) can be making us less efficient. The distraction of an interruption, combined with the brain drain of preparing for that interruption, made our test takers 20 percent dumber. That’s enough to turn a B-minus student (80 percent) into a failure (62 percent). However, in a subsequent test the respondents learned how to deal with the interruptions and did better on the test.

Is it possible the new digital distractions are taking away from the learning experience completely?

Tom Humphrey explains why the media might occasionally get the wrong idea...

Bizarre TBI press release after the break...

If you are from around here, trust me that this is the funniest thing you will read on Twitter all day...

Google Now just popped up a notification on my smartphone telling me the travel time to Provision Health & Wellness. Apparently it's because I searched for Provision Health Alliance from my desktop computer for a post I made a few minutes ago.

(It's 28 minutes, by the way, with light traffic on Alcoa Highway and no delays. There's also a little map.)

You may recall that the City of Knoxville won an IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant last fall. IBM's team presented their findings today. Metropulse has this report...

UPDATE: City presser after the break...

ProNova Solutions has announced an R&D partnership with Indiana University to develop advanced proton therapy technologies (press release). The company already had a relationship with IU to provide technology for proton therapy system components.

The company had previously been in talks with the University of Tennessee for a similar R&D partnership, but the state legislature denied U.T.'s request to guarantee $98 million in bonds as part of a complicated financing arrangement for ProNova's new proton therapy center in Knoxville. The arrangement would have posed little risk for U.T., according to ProNova, and U.T. would use proceeds to create a new medical physics degree and related engineering and R&D labs.

According to news reports, Oak Ridge Republican Sen. Randy McNally said at the time that "If proton therapy was such a good thing, you'd have one at Emory and Vandy." Heaven forbid that Knoxville should be on the leading edge of anything besides truck stops, highway projects and football. Oh, wait. Never mind about the football.

Anyway, plans are moving forward for ProNova's proton therapy center at the new Provision Health Alliance at Dowell Springs outpatient treatment center in Knoxville, apparently without U.T.'s involvement. The center is expected to open early next year.

According to PHA, the "Provision Center for Proton Therapy will be the first of its kind in Tennessee and only the second in the southeast. The center will provide one of the most advanced cancer treatments in the world to patients in the region."

While our TNGOP supermajority state legislature continued their laser-like focus on punishing working families and poor people and our governor fretted over what tie to wear and which pen to use to gut prevailing wage and Workers Comp laws, the state's unemployment rate increased from 7.8% to 8% for April 2013.

Tennessee was one of only three states to report an increase. The other two were Louisiana (6.2% to 6.5%) and North Dakota (3.2% to 3.3%).

Meanwhile, the unemployment rates in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia all went down.

The U.S. unemployment rate decreased to 7.5%.

Source

Congratulations! Now, bring it on home.

This is bigger than basketball, there is a collective happiness that has taken over the city because of what this team's done."

The Grizzlies beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 4-1 in the second round and Los Angeles Clippers 4-2 in the first.

The next series with the San Antonio Spurs starts Sunday, May 19th, at 3:30PM, on ABC. I could hear Howard Cosell saying ABC as I typed it.

From Yahoo News ...

A new law authored by de Léon attempts to address what he calls the coming "retirement tsunami." Signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in September 2012, the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program would establish automatic payroll contributions into retirement accounts for 6.3 million Californians whose employers don't sponsor a pension plan or a 401(k). Legislators in left-leaning states such as Connecticut and Illinois have put forward similar proposals, as has U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).

The contributions would be saved in individual, IRA-type accounts, but the accounts would be managed collectively as an estimated $6.6 billion fund. To protect workers against stock-market crashes, no more than 50 percent would be invested in equities.

Inside The California Retirement Plan That Terrifies Republican Lawmaker

California Takes On the Retirement Crisis - NY Times

Beer is Proof God Loves Us. Amazon has this ebook on sale today for $0.00. I just got my notice and downloaded my copy.

Several reviewers loved it, some thought it stunk. But it's free and you can always flush it. Imagine how you would feel if you paid the list price of $26 for it and then hated it.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) tore into Holder over his approach to marijuana, asking why his Justice Department is “continuing to put people in jail,” even as polling shows a majority of Americans believe the plant should not be illegal:

(link...)