Tag Archives: New York Times

Paperless Books

Today’s title might have been seen as an oxymoron just a few years ago.  I mean, the notion of a “book” without paper was as unrealistic as book publishers graciously declining to publish an author’s work and doing so promptly.

Then came e-readers which some said would hurt the book industry.  As with the music business, book publishers did whatever they could to prevent digital downloads of books by charging exorbitant prices (the same prices as if the book had to be printed on paper) and refusing to allow certain titles to go digital.  With the Kindle and other reading devices reaching scale (roughly 15% of American readers have one), the industry has come to recognize that porting content to another platform may be disruptive in the short-term but potentially a great thing over time.  Want more proof? Continue reading

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Filed under digital media

Spotting BS

magnifying glass

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Yesterday’s rant was on the need to check out facts before finalizing opinions. A great example of this is in today’s NY Times piece on last night’s debate – it simply states what the candidate said and what multiple sources say on the same subjects to back up or question what was said. Hopefully the paper and many others will continue to do this right through the election next year.
But what happens when you do try to verify facts and find that there are multiple, conflicting data points? Could it be because some of them are fake? Continue reading

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Filed under Helpful Hints, Reality checks

What Ails Us

Black Monday -- FTSE 100 Index from 19 July 19...

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Over the weekend, S&P downgraded the credit rating of the United States, something that was unthinkable not such a short time ago.  This morning, markets worldwide are tumbling.  As you know, we don’t talk about politics here unless those political activities bring us enlightenment from a business perspective and I can’t think of a more perfect example than this.

To reduce this to its simplest form, the credit downgrade was caused (and I’m NOT placing blame on either side here) by our “leaders'” inability to govern.  The effects of this are mostly unfelt yet, but the ones we’re already feeling are pretty bad.   But let’s keep it to business, shall we? Continue reading

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Filed under Helpful Hints, Reality checks