Jim Manis on Most Anything

Jim Manis can formulate an opinion about a good many things, including those about which he has little knowledge. (And some dude named "Lazlo.") Visit The MagicFactory.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Taking Notes Helps:

Decades ago when I was in college I learned that simply taking notes helped me remember lectures. Often I didn't even need to go over those notes, or at least didn't need to spend much time studying them afterwards, in order to recall information for a test.

Now it turns out that even just doodling can help a person recall information with an improved efficiency of up to 29 percent, according to findings published in Applied Cognitive Psychology. (You can find the story at Yahoo's "Health Day" site.) Which was my argument in English class during my junior year of high school when I had the least enthusiastic teacher in the history of public education. Quite a feat since during my sophomore year I had the second least enthusiastic teacher. (How, I always wondered, could such a good public school, nevertheless, host two such improbable performers?)

Joe, the former of these two, was an ex-Marine, combat veteran of the Korean War, with the scar tissue on his face to prove it. Apparently, he had survived being hit by shrapnel from a grenade, and he had all the demeanor of a drill sergeant and the indifference of a modern day CEO. Even though I was a starting linebacker on the varsity football team, I knew to be very careful with this man. Better not to look too closely at him.

In order to distract myself and in the hopes of not being called upon in class and publicly humiliated, a favorite form of control, I began doodling whenever Joe lectured. I also figured this might keep me awake. There was nothing worse than falling asleep in one of Joe's classes.

One day shortly after I had begun this practice and Joe had been castigating first one student and then the other, he looked over at me in the corner of the room where I had hoped his faulty peripheral vision might allow me some protection and demanded to know just what I was doing. Quite possibly he thought I was writing a note to another student or doing my math homework.

"Doodling," I responded, trying to imitate the concerned and thoughtful expression I had observed on rare occasions by my elders. "It helps me concentrate and remember."

For the first time, I discovered that Joe had at least one other expression than the various degrees of disgust his face normally displayed. He seemed very nearly astounded.

"Well," he said loudly, "see that you do."

Now I was stuck. I would have to go on doodling in his class for the rest of the year, even when I didn't feel like doodling, and my sketching abilities were extremely limited. Sure, I had won a blue ribbon at the state fair when I was six years old for a pastel I had created in first grade art class, but my drafting abilities had gone down rapidly after that.

Worse, Joe was sure to tell the other teachers, and I would have to doodle in all of their classes as well. Truly, high school is hell, but one thing seems certain. Doodling has had a profound effect on my memory. How else do you explain this story, unless I just made it all up.

More Growing Pains for TV:

First it was going to make us all better educated, then it rotted our brains, and following this it was going to bring an unbelievable wealth of choice, dramatically improving democracy, allowing us to talk back.

None of this proved quite as wonderful or terrible as the hucksters and social critics thought. Currently, the issue is over plummeting advertising dollars. Revenue is drying up. There are limits that economists seemed to have never warned anyone about. Environmentalists told us a long time ago that we live in a finite world, but economists seemed to believe that wealth could grow exponentially throughout the eons (or at least the next business quarter).

Broadcast networks are in trouble. Dramatic shows cost around $3 million per hour to create, and the ad revenue that used to pay for them is drying up. The spigots at GM and Ford have been closed. The dirty little secret of business—there are limits to the amount of advertising dollars—is out of the closet. (See Tim Arango's article in today's New York Times.)

Americans, however, seem to be adapting, even if TV executives are fumbling about with ever more "reality" TV shows to cut costs. Viewers are tuning in to cable, renting movies and TV shows, and watching TV on their computers. The consumer is driving the market even if the vehicle has no idea where it is going.

The War America Never Should Have Fought Will End:

The news has been full of the Obama time table for America's cessation of military involvement in Iraq, but the topic that will be most important is being skirted. What will happen to the country that was never a country?

As everyone should know by now, Iraq is a European concept imposed on the people of the region, maintained first by foreign intervention and then by strong-man-government. The latter model has been broken and no one wants to impose the former, except perhaps Iran.

So far, no one is talking publicly about all of that "sweet oil" that lies so close to the surface. Or about the American desire to maintain a strong military presence in the region for reasons other than toppling a petty dictatorship or fighting terrorists.

Labels: , ,

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Free Trade and the NRA:

Mexico sends the U. S. drugs and cheap labor; in return for which the U. S. ships Mexico tons of guns and plenty of death. (Catchy, right?)

The story of the gun trafficking between the U. S. and Mexico is starting to come to light. NPR ran a story on it recently, and today's New York Times has a major story as well. Last year, according to the Times' story, more than 6,000 Mexican citizens were killed in the drug wars in that country, most of them with guns illegally shipped by U. S. gun dealers to Mexico.

It is important to note, that the guns are not being furnished by people we normally think of as criminals. Their origination in this trade comes from legitimate gun dealers. The problem is that the laws governing the gun trade—thanks to the influence of the National Rifle Association—are too weak to prohibit the trade. And to date, no one on the northern side of the border seemed to care.

However, now that a new administration is in town, Washington seems to be taking notice. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has announced the American government's concern that the violence has reached such a state that it could easily spill over into the U. S. side of the border. (See Spencer Hsu's "Napolitano Cites Mexican Drug Cartels as Major Threat" in today's Washington Post.) No doubt this is why the story is starting to reach the national press. It should be interesting to see how the NRA responds, as jealous as they are about a gun dealer's right to sell anything to anybody under any circumstances.

The Hypocrisy of Republican Governors:

A lot of fun has recently been poked at Louisiana's Republican governor Bobby Jindal for his rebuttal to the president's speech to congress Tuesday night. The truth is that those rebuttals never come off very well regardless of who delivers them.

The bigger issue is the blatant hypocrisy of Jindal and people like the Alaskan governor who complain about federal taxes when in fact both states receive far more back in federal tax aid and spending than either state pays in federal taxes. Their arguments are nothing more than empty rhetoric, meant to fool the gullible and support their own financially elite backers. (See Gail Collins Times Op-Ed piece.)

Labels:

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

For a Change, People Have Stopped Buying What They Don't Need:

After the dot com bubble burst, the economy was driven by real estate and easy credit until more houses than could be sold had been built. Then the house of cards collapsed.

Jack Healy reports in today's New York Times that home sales are at their "Slowest Pace in More Than a Decade." When was the last time that you heard the U. S. was suffering from a housing shortage? If you are under forty, perhaps even under fifty, that's a phrase that you have absolutely no familiarity with.

For decades the myth has been that if you invest in real estate you can't lose. Property would always go up in value. The other myth, the one about supply and demand, was mostly ignored. Sure, there are folks living in substandard housing, but for the most part they simply can't move into the realm of home ownership.

Labels:

The High Cost of States' Killing People:

The economic downturn is being reflected in places most of us don't think about. States are having difficulty paying for essentials, and one area where states can save a chunk of money is with their penal institutions. One of the most expensive items in a states budget is capitol punishment. Killing throwaway citizens for the sake of pandering to voters costs a lot of money.

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley has proposed abolishing the death penalty in his state based on the argument that there is no room in the state budget to do this. Other states seem likely to follow, except of course Texas where executing people who cannot afford adequate legal representation seems to be a form of recreation. (See Ian Urbina's New York Times' story.)

The Humanities under Fire:

The economic downturn has brought the humanities—that field of study devoted to literacy, reading, writing, and thinking skills—in to question, once again, as to their true economic value. Can schools continue to justify budget lines devoted to a discipline that doesn't automatically lead to employment, like say a degree in engineering? (See Patricia Cohen's New York Times' story.)

The question isn't knew. The humanities are challenged in good economic times as well. The odd thing is that folks with strong reading, writing and analytical skills, the qualities taught within the humanities, generally become the leaders in any field of endeavor they follow. Unfortunately, it is difficult if not impossible to project concrete numbers regarding this prognosis. We know it anecdotally. And naturally there are no guarantees.

Labels: ,

Monday, February 23, 2009

EduBusiness:

Like the health care business, which has little to do with actual health care and more to do with re-allocating your money into other people's hands, the education business is more about liberating your money from your paycheck to someone else's bank account. Tamar Lewin takes a look at the Fafsa (Free Application for Federal Student Aid—people actually pay other people to fill out the form) and the difficulties people have filling out the six-page form so that they can apply for grants and loans to go to college. (See today's New York Times.)

What Lewin doesn't address is the fact that just a generation ago people didn't need to fill out forms like this just to get a loan to go to college. Most people didn't need a loan at all, their concern with the cost of attending college generally had to do with the income they lost during the handful of years that they actually attended. So what happened? Why does a college education cost so much money?

Consider this: Lewin points out that there is a concerted effort in Washington these days to reduce the size of the Fafsa form and make it both less intimidating to complete and requiring less time. But no one is talking about reducing the cost of higher education. Or at least putting a lid on it.

Neither the institutions themselves, nor the banks who profit so handsomely from the loans, have any incentive to keep costs low. I submit that as long as we are concerned about whether there will be a national playoff for the number one ranking of a college football team that we are not likely to find an answer to this situation.

Labels:

Saturday, February 21, 2009

What's White and Black and Red (Read) All Over?

That old joke was told repeatedly when I was a child. There were two correct answers: 1) a newspaper and 2) a sun-burnt zebra. But neither of these were what immediately came to mind. Instead, the question always aroused suspicion that the answer had something to do with race. It was the 1950s and race was on everyone's mind.

Recently, we've elected an African American president in The United States. The press has been raising the question of whether America is now past its racial difficulties considering the magnitude of this event, and African Americans are responding indignantly that of course we have not.

Attorney General Eric Holder recently announced his own views on the subject, stating that we are a "a nation of cowards" because it seems we refuse to "dialogue" on the topic. There's nothing new in this. White people have never wanted to have an honest conversation with black people on the subject of race, and black people seem to resort only in accusation when the topic comes up. This is a hard topic, full of recriminations.

Charles Blow writes on the topic in today's Time's Op-Ed pages. Some of what he has to say follows:

First, white people don’t want to be labeled as prejudiced, so they work hard around blacks not to appear so. A study conducted by researchers at Tufts University and Harvard Business School and published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that many whites — including those as young as 10 years old — are so worried about appearing prejudiced that they act colorblind around blacks, avoiding “talking about race, or even acknowledging racial difference,” even when race is germane. Interestingly, blacks thought that whites who did this were more prejudiced than those who didn’t.

Second, that work is exhausting. A 2007 study by researchers at Northwestern and Princeton that was published in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science found that interracial interactions leave whites both “cognitively and emotionally” drained because they are trying not to be perceived as prejudiced.

The fear of offending isn’t necessarily cowardice, nor is a failure to acknowledge a bias that you don’t know that you have, but they are impediments. We have to forget about who’s a coward and who’s brave, about who feels offended and who gets blamed. Let’s focus on the facts, and let’s just talk.

Labels:

Mobbed Up Judiciary:

"It's an onion, dearie. You just keep peeling away the layers, and sooner or later you arrive at the core, if your eyes can stand it."

Surprise, surprise! There's corruption in the courts of Luzerne County Pennsylvania, the place that provided Mario Puzo with the inspiration for his 1969 novel, The Godfather (see also the movies, parts I, II, and III). (See today's New York Times for the continuing saga of the corruption being uncovered in the region. The question now is will authorities dig deep enough to root out all of the corruption and mob activities. Somehow, it seems doubtful.)

This is the same county, America, that's home to Hazleton, PA, with its mayor who tried to tell you that what we all must fear most are illegal aliens. Less than 100 miles due west of New York city on Interstate 80, the area has long been a main tributary in the drug trade and a safe haven for mobsters wanting to avoid the sharp eyes of ambitious big city prosecutors and politicians. Generally speaking, it has also been a relatively safe area.

Organized crime, it has been asserted, helped keep a lid on activities that might bring scrutiny to the area. It is an area of contrasts, containing spectacular natural beauty in the Pocono Mountains and some of the worst mining and industrial environmental damage in the country. It is the home of a number of fine institutions of higher education where important research is conducted and a place known for remaining almost willfully ignorant to the point of being functionally illiterate. In other words, it is about as American as apple pie, or should we say, pierogies.

Labels:

Thursday, February 19, 2009

What's Wrong with California?

The Republican governor of California can't get just three members of his own party to go along with him to keep the state government functioning. Shortly, Gov. Schwarzenegger will likely be forced to layoff some 200,000 state employees, while public works of all sorts will stand idle at a time when the national crisis appears to whirl around the need not simply to keep people working but to create more jobs for them to do.

Gail Collins points out in today's New York Times just how petty things can be in the state that proved itself the biggest dupes in the Enron scandal a few years back. State Senator Abel Maldonado—a super rich broccoli farmer (read that as a guy who got super rich off the sweat of ultra cheap farm labor)—wants to be state controller. He really hates the current controller and will do whatever is in his power to prevent him from redecorating his office. (I told you it would be unbelievably petty.) Thus he'll stop any spending bill within his means to do so.

Evidently, state election laws need to be changed if Maldonado is to run for controller, and he's currently "holding out" for changes to be made in the election laws. As far as Maldonado is concerned, the state can go bankrupt if he doesn't become controller. It's just this sort that has infected state governments around the country. Don't fool yourself into believing in the few bad apples theory or that the right sort of system could prevent this behavior. Only vigilance and the proper laws can limit the lust for power.

In Economic News:

More than 6.5 million Americans are now receiving unemployment compensation, as the jobless rate continues to climb (See the NPR story). The good news is that the stimulus package passed, but now the question becomes how long will it take and to what degree will it be effective.

The Decline of Literacy:

The news recently has focused on the delivery of the news, including the loss of the book review sections in newspapers. Dick Meyer addresses the issue at NPR today, arguing that along with the decline of newspapers will come a decline in reading of books and ultimately a decline in overall literacy.

Unfortunately, this decline has been going on for some thirty years now, and is part of the explanation of how we've gotten into our current mess. President Obama is right in asserting that, if we ever to pull ourselves out of our economic whirlpool, we must focus on education. But it isn't just the schools that need our attention. The first function of newspapers is to educate readers.

Some will argue that C-SPAN2's Book TV has taken the place of the book review sections in newspapers, but viewers will note that Book TV primarily devotes its time to "non-fiction" works with a heavy emphasis on the political and its nonstop stream of right-wing propaganda from publishers devoted to this pet project. Others will note that Oprah, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, and Charlie Rose all provide venues for the promotion of book sales, and this is true, but they hardly provide significant literary commentary, other than perhaps Charlie Rose, that is likely to enhance literacy.

Labels: , ,

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

While You Weren't Looking:

Now that all eyes are turned on the world-wide whirlpool that we call the economy, the major oil companies can suck the life out the table scraps.

The other night I had PBS on when an Exxon Mobil ad—yes, I know PBS doesn't have advertising, it has sponsors who get to talk about themselves—proclaimed that it was doing everything in its power to provide cheap and clean energy for the American economy during these difficult times.

What! This right after the news that the reason gasoline prices have jumped by some 30 percent is the direct result of the oil companies' cutting back on production to artificially push their already record breaking profits even higher? And don't forget this is the same company that spent millions of dollars to promote lies about global warming.

If we weren't all so panicked about the rest of the economy, we'd be screaming over this abuse. Exxon Mobil and its sisters know we're not going to demand that our federal representatives press the companies to stop their vampire-like activities because we're too busy worrying about whether we'll have a job or health care in the coming weeks.

If you're one of those people who think the environment benefits by higher energy prices, surely it would be better if those higher prices were the result of increased taxes rather than outrageous profits going to a company that has done everything within its power to undermine your environmental concerns.

Labels:

Monday, February 16, 2009

Six Years and Counting:

This marks the sixth anniversary of my first entry on the site. Happy anniversary, Jim! ("You blowhard!" I'm quoting my father here.)

Currently, we are waiting for something important to happen, but because it is president's day—is that a real holiday—nothing will happen until tomorrow. Fortunately, the banks were closed and couldn't do anything untoward to further alienate us from our economy.

Stanley Fish's blog is online, but it isn't accepting any more comments at this hour, so reading it now is just an exercise in frustration. Prof. Fish has been trying to explain academic freedom to his readers but seems to have only fogged up the issue, despite the pleasure some of his commentators evidently take in his erudition.

The good professor has just published a book entitled Save the World on Your Own Time, which I have vowed never to open. The notion of academic freedom is primarily an illusion that receives more air time than it warrants.

If Prof. Fish were truly interested in matters of higher learning, he would focus on the two most important changes that have been occurring: 1) the massive influx of students into colleges and universities over the past thirty years (nearly 67 percent of high school graduates now attend college) and the effects that has had on what takes place in the universities and colleges; and 2) the financial costs of education, especially the massive indebtedness that students are now leaving college with.

Something stinks in this Denmark, and it ain't the rare wacko professor who decides to preach Marxism instead of physics.

Labels:

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Free Market Politics:

The right in the U. S. clamors for reduced government, proclaiming that privatizing as much as possible brings about the greatest freedom. The questions are always "freedom for whom and to do what?"

In Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, it means freedom for judges to take millions of dollars in kickbacks from private companies running penal institutions.

Two judges in that county are being accused of sending thousands of children to jail and "wilderness camps" run by private companies who received taxpayer moneys for running them. These judges had little incentive to meet out appropriate sentences to juvenile offenders or to follow constitutional law and, apparently, even less oversight during the Bush years when most of their offenses took place. (See the MSNBC story here.)

From Bad to Worse:

Global warming is advancing faster than any previous models projected, according to American scientists. (See The Washington Post story.) Most of the modeling done to project global warming rates is based on data obtained prior to the Bush years in the White House. However, new data that includes the massive increase in carbon fuels used in developing countries suggest a notable increase in the rate of the man made contribution.

Worse news lies on the horizon: the rapid increase in global warming will have an effect on the permafrost in northern climes, which now holds massive amounts of both carbon and methane. The latter has significantly more—about 25 times more—potential to damage the environment than carbon.

In addition, the increased demand for biofuels is further contributing to the destruction of tropical forests that are the most effective means for nature to pull carbon out of the atmosphere.

Guns in the Classroom:

Just what every college instructor looks forward to: an unknown number of students carrying an unknown number of guns while he or she tries to teach a class. Today's Washington Post describes a student movement in Virginia to pass a law allowing students to carry concealed weapons onto campus and into the classroom. Presumably, this would have cut down on the number of students killed and wounded during the Virgina Tech massacre, at least that's what the proponents argue. More likely it would simply lead to more shooting incidents, including the killing of innocent people by "friendly fire."

There are times when a fire is needed to put out a fire, but that's an action of last resort, best conducted by trained professionals. I'm sure campus police forces would truly love the idea that they must deal with an unknown number of hormone afflicted, drug and alcohol experimenting teens carrying concealed weapons.

Labels: ,

Saturday, February 14, 2009

How To Critique TV and Washington Politicians in the Same Op-Ed:

Gail Collins manages both with wit and style in today's New York Times.

Labels: ,

Thursday, February 12, 2009

We're All Equal, Right?

Timothy Egan has some interesting points to make in the blog he posted yesterday on The New York Times' site, about the A-Rod drug use issue. Some 2.3 million Americans are behind bars, and about one out of every five is there on drug charges. And the gold medalist swimmer, Michael Phelps has been suspended from competition for being photographed with his nose in a bong. Phelps is 23. He's also going to lose some money from the loss of an advertising contract.

In the meantime, A-Rod wants us to pat him on the head and say we understand that at an age when he was well into his twenties and should be considered an adult that in fact he was still an underage, ill advised youth. Apparently, this excuse is supposed to cover his nationally televised lie about taking performance enhancing drugs a little over a year ago as well.

The thing is that's probably just what will happen. A-Rod makes money for some very powerful people. His drug use served their purposes as well as his own. Life ain't never been fair. Just ask Ted Williams.

Labels:

Technology:

With the world economy in the tank and swirling down the drain, Microsoft is trying to do it's part to get things going again. It's no secret that WindowsXP still dominates the corporate environment, even though the official release of the operating system came out eight years ago.

Microsoft came out with its Vista operating system two years ago and almost immediately became the but of a nifty Mac advertising attack. It solved many of its problems with the release of a major service pack, but with Vista requiring substantial hardware upgrades and IT departments being cut on funding, the operating system still hasn't made major headway into the business community. Plus Microsoft is preparing to release yet another operating system, known as Windows 7, now being beta tested.

So what's the news? Microsoft is starting to very nearly demand that users "get off XP" as reported by Mary Jane Foley in her ZDNet blog. Ouch! So much for the "better mousetrap" theory.

Labels:

200 Years Ago:

Both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born. Both generated considerable discomfort in the hearts of white American southerners. 

Labels:

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Stop Preening and Get Back To Work:

Maureen Dowd complains today in the Times' Op-Ed pages. The big banks have received big bucks to bail them out, and absolutely no one seems to know what happened to the hundreds of millions given away in the give away. Dowd points out that at least three of the banks have been buying advertising in the Times to "pat themselves on the back" that cost enough to support a family for up to four years. That's each ad!

Labels:

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Market Down, GM and Wal-Mart to Lay Off Workers:

Seems the business community is not overwhelmed with the bailout. (See The New York Times' stories: GM and Wal-Mart.)

In the meantime, the price of gasoline at the pump has crept back up to around $2.00 a gallon even though the price of crude per barrel remains around $40, which should make the price at the pump closer to a buck and a half or even less. Maybe the gouging wouldn't seem so rude if it weren't for the fact that Exxon Mobil and its henchmen weren't making record breaking profits every quarter. These are the same folks who pumped millions into the campaign to deny global warming, as I'm sure you recall.

So while you're outraged at A-Rod for fibbing about his personal stimulus package, save some anger for the folks who actually take cash out of your pocket.

Speaking of novel ideas:

Ruth Y. Goldway contributes this idea to the Times' Op-Ed page: Convert the largest civilian fleet of vehicles in the United States to electricity. That's right, turn the Postal Services vehicles green, and not just in color. Sounds like one of those "write your congressman" ideas to me.

Labels:

Doug Glanville on A-Fraud
(He thinks it's a pretty lame nickname, too.)

Alex Rodriguez and his 2003 drug test results have been the topic of much debate for the past few days. On February 9th, former player and current NY Times guest columnist Doug Glanville decided to get in on the action. Glanville was a teammate of Rodriguez's during part of the 2003 season, and he paints a slightly different picture of the man who many thought would someday be the "clean" homerun king. Glanville describes A-Rod as friendly, hardworking, a little bit chatty, and cocky in a charming and impressive way (rather than the God-that-guy-grates-on-me way that I always imagined).

However, Glanville's main concern really isn't A-Rod's image. He's more frustrated with the fact that any player's name has been linked to results from the 2003 tests. Here's the issue as simply as I can put it: The purpose of the 2003 test was to estimate how many major league players were taking banned performance enhancing drugs--or at least the PEDs for which MLB was willing to test. The purpose was not to punish players who were tested positive nor was it even to identify those individuals. MLB was hoping to show that very few players took steroids; therefore, no new action would be required. Unfortunately for MLB, the percentages turned out to be somewhere from 5-8.5%, depending which reports you believe. Regardless, the tests where never about who--they were about how many.

So, Glanville asks, why were the names ever connected to the testing results or even the samples? And, furthermore, why would a source--or in this case, four sources--leak the information? And why was A-Rod's the only name to be leaked from the list that included 103 other major league baseball players?

My guess is because it sells papers and books. I don't see how going back and punishing these guys, or even revealing them, helps anyone but the press.

Mr. Glanville seems to believe that no one is talking about this. I have to admit that it hasn't gotten near as much attention as the fact of A-Rod's cheating, but if you scan baseball blogs, you'll find conversation about the tests and the leak. For example, click here to see what blogger Rob G. and some of the commenters over at The Cub Reporter had to say. (This link seemed appropriate to me for two reason: one, I'm a Cub fan and it's my favorite Cubs blog; two, Glanville came up to the majors as an outfielder for the Chicago Cubs.)

Something of a journeyman during his 9-year MLB career--he appeared last in the majors with the Phillies in 2004--Glanville is one of the better athletes turned intellectuals in recent memory. Though he meanders around his topic a bit, he brings a different perspective to his articles than most writers at the NY Times. Maybe it helps that he's sort of an intellectual-turned-athlete-turned-intellectual; Doug Glanville graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Systems Engineering (whatever that is). You can find his guest columns over at the opinion pages at The New York Times, and you can visit his webpage at www.dougglanville.com.

Labels: , , , , ,

Monday, February 09, 2009

Amazon Wants You To Read on the Kindle:

Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos announced the latest version of its eBook reader, the Kindle 2, to much fanfare in New York. Now the battle royal begins among it, Sony, and Google to deliver the content you are desperate to read.

NOTE: The devise costs $359.

NOTE: You can buy one of the new mini/9-inch computers for less than this, and its screen will be in color.

NOTE: Text books are still not available.

NOTE: Book lovers still prefer paper by a ratio of 99 to 1.

NOTE: Book sales continue to drop.

NOTE: The number of people who choose to read for entertainment or personal enrichment has been in steady decline for half a century. (Do you really think non readers have just been waiting for a killer electronic device?)

Full disclosure: I own thousands of books. I frequently use the library and have half a dozen books checked out at this time. I sometimes buy books from Amazon. And I've been involved in the eBook business for a dozen years.

(Read The New York Times' story here. The page provides a link to an interview with Bezos too, and you can listen to him talk about how he wants the device to disappear.)

In Other Important News:

Darren Gladstone reports in PC World that "game playing" may be a good way to enhance your résumé. It appears that The World of Warcraft, also known as WoW, might provide the best skills currently. The problem might be with who reads the résumé.

You might be able to organize fifty online players into a team that will follow you and adhere to your plan in accomplishing a specific goal, but will your employer buy what you've been able to accomplish within the framework of the computer gaming world as a skill that he or she can exploit in the workplace?

Or will this prospective employer simply conclude that you can only have achieved this by not doing the work you should have been doing, like what ever it was you were being paid to do or the school work your instructors expected of you. (Phew! That was wordy, but I'll bet you know what I mean, right? Hate those rhetorical questions, don't you? Don't bother to answer that.)

In the Really, Really Important News:

Obama took his show on the road today, dragging along part of the congress, into the hinterlands of … Indiana! The results might be available tomorrow.

Hey! I've been to Indiana, or as we like to say where I'm from, I've been through Indiana. It's a lot like Illinois and Ohio. Or for that matter Kentucky, just a bit further north.

Labels: , ,

Sunday, February 08, 2009

On Human Nature: What's natural isn't always natural

Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and now Alex Rodriguez apparently used performance enhancing drugs, baseball players widely viewed as the best, most dominant professional athletes in their sport—before they allegedly used illegal substances.

The question is why would someone who already dominates feel the need to cheat?

Today's New York Times reports on the Rodriguez' story. With spring training approaching in a few short weeks, this story will continue to dominate the sports news until college basketball's "March Madness." But the story is bigger than sports, it reflects something in all of us that speaks to our humanity.

Waiting in the Wings:

As tax season approaches, the problem of the Alternative Minimum Tax hovers like a dark cloud over millions of American taxpayers. Just when the government is struggling to figure out how to put money into the hands of consumers, the A. M. T. is set to extract it. Some of this problem, perhaps all of it, could be fixed if all income were treated as, which is to say taxed as, income. Currently loopholes allow the rich to avoid paying income tax at the same rate as workers by declaring much of their income under other guises, such as capital gains.

Labels: ,

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Remember When MTV Was Worth Watching?

Back in the first decade or so of MTV's existence the accusation was that the musical channel was nothing more than a 24/7 advertising device for the music industry. But MTV had an effect (at least one) on the way we looked at things. It changed the narrative.

Advertising itself may be about to revolutionize things. Honda has produced two excellent advertisements currently running on their You Tube site that are well worth the time to look at. Now that's hard to fathom, until you actually view them.

The easiest way to get there is through the Salon.com site. Thanks to my daughter for sending me this link. I'm glad to see that she's putting her time in Hollywood to good use. (Just kidding, darlin'!) It's called "Failure is definitely an option."

Labels:

Friday, February 06, 2009

Shrinkage:

600,000 jobs disappeared last month as the unemployment rate climbed to 7.6 percent, a level not seen since George H. W. Bush was president. The rate of decline actually exceeds any seen since 1974, when Nixon was president. (See The New York Times' story.)

In other economic news, the market actually improved slightly, with all major markets showing at least a 2 percent increase. Perhaps buyers were responding to Obama's stiff call for action. Pundits have remarked that the President has been playing too nice with congress, a group most notable at the moment for fiddling about while the country's economy is burning down.

Peanuts, Not for the Funny Papers:

The salmonella/peanut story is starting to look uglier. Accusations have now come forth that indicate someone knew the product was tainted in the Georgian plant. (See The New York Times' story.) A number of people have died and nearly two hundred have been made sick. Will criminal prosecutions follow?

The next big issue:

Looming just beyond the problems with the economy and the residue of Bush's "War on Terror" are a number of interesting questions, like stem cell research. Earlier today, the Food and Drug Administration "approved the first pharmaceutical product made in the milk of genetically engineered animals" (Andrew Pollack "F.D.A. Approves Drug Made From Goat's Milk" The New York Times). The process holds promise but also raises ethical concerns, and there are logistical issues as well.

Labels: ,

A Voice of Reason:

Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, argues in today's New York Times' Op-Ed pages that he should be paying higher taxes. Hastings states that there is little that can be done on the part of government to limit the extremely high pay the executives at large companies receive. Bill Clinton tried to do it during his presidency, and it simply resulted in the giant bonus programs that evolved. Hastings suggests raising the tax on the huge comp packages to 50 percent. He should have added, "and close the loopholes."

Rush Limbaugh for Prez?

Apparently, the clown in the radio booth is running the Republican party, at least The New York Times' Paul Krugman seems to think so. The question then becomes will The Grand Ol' Party nominate him in 2012?

Labels: ,

Thursday, February 05, 2009

If it sounds too good to be true, Bernie Madoff probably devised it:

Today's New York Times reports on the list of folks who replied to Bernard L. Madoff's "Nigerian scam" as it was made public in bankruptcy-court filings. The reporters are chuckling, but the biggest laugh comes at the expense of Madoff's own lawyer. Yup, he was suckered in by the con along with thousands of other folks, some of whom make up a who's who list of sports, political, and entertainment personalities. Oh, yeah, Lary King's in the group too.

If you're feeling ghoulish, you can view the list here.

Labels:

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Drastic Drops in New Car Sales:

While Exxon Mobil and the other oil titans registered record breaking profits, the automobile industry is suffering through agonies that would have been hard to imagine a year ago. Nick Bunkley reports on the numbers in The New York Times: General Motors saw sales fall by almost half in January. Ford and Toyota didn't fare that much better.

In New York City, Madison Avenue looks like Allentown, PA a few years ago, or maybe your local mall. (See the photo in today's New York Times.) A friend e-mailed me yesterday that downtown Boston is shuttering as well.

In other economic news, "pending" home sales were up in December. "Pending" means that the buyer has signed a contract but that the deal has not been "closed." It should be noted that the median home price in December was $175 thousand, down from the previous December when it was $207 thousand. (See The New York Times' story.) (Note: "median" means in the middle, not the average.) So are people buying cheaper houses, or are houses selling for less? The answer is likely all of the above. Provided financing is available.

Labels:

The Dream and the Reality:

Peter Baker addresses the disappointments and the sneers from left and right, in today's New York Times, as Obama falls short of the lofty goals many allowed themselves to believed were possible to achieve in Washington within the first couple of weeks of the new administration. No more crooks in government, we thought we were promised. But it turns out that you can't quite get anything done without them.

One of the fascinating things about this process has been just how many of these folks have tax problems. National Public Radio just announced a third nominee, who has subsequently dropped out, has been found to have such issues. It's likely that these folks pay someone to do their taxes for them. What does this say about the whole process?

Labels:

Monday, February 02, 2009

American Consumers Are Saving More:

A voice of sanity:
“If American consumers are less indebted, live within their means and have more money in savings, they are better positioned to spend on a sustainable basis for years to come,” said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com. “As painful as that is economically in the short run, these developments will better serve us in the long run.”
After years of being told they are foolish for not saving, Americans now are saving at least a little money. It appears that lower gasoline prices hasn't caused everyone to run out and buy a new SUV and drive it as if there were no tomorrow. Gasoline prices—although they've been steadily rising lately—account for some of the savings. And Americans have realized that if they don't absolutely need a new car that maybe they can wait a while before purchasing one. But the big savings has come from not buying another newer and bigger home. It seems Americans have finally realized that 1) there is no housing shortage and 2) there is no natural law requiring real estate values to perpetually go up.

Labels:

And the Good News Is:

Annie Gowen reports on D. C. area libraries and their increased use in today's Washington Post. It seems that use has climbed dramatically during the drastic economic downturn. The free Internet use accounts for part of the change. Job seekers want the opportunity to make use of the service. But free books and DVDs are also appealing. Perhaps there is a silver lining here. We have to wonder if the phenomena is occurring in other places around the country. Unfortunately, library services are often among the first cut during hard economic times.

Labels:

Sunday, February 01, 2009

"Get out of the grown-ups' way":

The new face of the Republican party is Rush Limbaugh, America's drug addict radio blowhard. This is the Bush political legacy, a party so disarranged that a clown has become its best known face.

The New Y0rk Times' Frank Rich addresses the debacle of The Grand Old Party in today's op-ed pages, pointing out just how brain dead the Republican party has become, with Sarah Palin and Limbaugh as its leadership. As Rich says, "the Republicans should either lead, follow or get out of the grown-ups’ way." Ah-men to that, brother.

Labels: