An independent survey shows growing strength of e-books. There's also a lot of general publishing information in there. My brain is trying to wrap around the stats. So ebooks have passed hardcover and paperback sales and publishers have doubled their net from ebooks to over $2b, print sales drop less than 1% to $11.1b, but overall net revenues only grew 0.5% to $13.97b. To me that means there's an awful lot of low price to free ebooks being sold. The good news is it doesn't look like the Borders shut down affected the mix of online to brick and mortar sales. (Grokked from Jay Lake)
"The old battles are not over; indeed, the situation seems to be getting worse. For conservatives, conventional morality and religion are waning… If the ills of modernity are intensifying, conservatives know why. They rarely mention hyperconsumerism or advertising or a rigidifying class structure—the byproducts of advanced capitalism. Rather, they dwell on the presumably corrosive ideas of the educated, especially the professoriate." An interesting squib in the Chronicle (of Higher Education) on anti-intellectualism in the conservative movement. Hint: it's all a cynical ploy by the power players in the Republican Party. (Grokked from thc1972)
Think your holiday snaps are the bomb? Think again. Well, it helps when you are 1) a trained photographer, 2) have a pro rig, and 3) go to places most people don't or wouldn't. (Grokked from Jay Lake)
Sigh. Things like this happen when your ideology doesn't match to reality. I doubt very much these sites really thought about running gun giveaways or demos right next to the Colorado shooting story. (Grokked from Tobias Buckell)
"When it comes to things like flood and droughts, most people seem to have accurately registered the recent trends in their area. But when the subject shifts to temperatures, the actual trends become irrelevant, and ideology and political beliefs shape how people perceive things." Or, in other words, the spin of the climate "debate" creates a reinforcing belief that reality can't break. I believe they call that "the bubble." (Grokked from Jay Lake)
Jim Wright is wise about the Colorado shootings. I've been struggling with what to say, and Jim, as is his wont, nailed the landing.
Nuclear plant workers in Fukushima given orders to cover their radiation badges with lead covers. Considering I get to wear one of those starting this fall, you can't believe what a complete scam (that word isn't nearly strong enough) this is. As a radiation worker, at least here in the US, your dosage is tracked throughout your lifetime. Basically the people who 1) ordered the lead covers and 2) ordered the workers to wear them over their dosimeters should be thrown in jail (I don't believe Japan has the death penalty). It's that serious. (Grokked from Jay Lake)
5 comments:
eBooks get more and more interesting, don't they?
L(I don't believe Japan has the death penalty).
Yes, they do. They executed a couple of people when I lived there.
It's really nasty the way they do it, too. The prosoner is never notified in advance of the death date, so they wake up every morning wondering if today is the day:
Executions are carried out by hanging in a death chamber within the Detention Center. When a death order has been issued, the condemned prisoner is informed in the morning of his or her execution.
Rick, yes they do. although, like I said, those numbers don't quite add up so well. So I'm not sure the data is showing what a lot of people think it's showing.
John, thanks for the correction. Unfortunately it's only for homicide or treason (according to the wiki). Although this would count as homicide, it's a slow acting death, so I doubt a court would count it as applicable. Although I am glad to see some employees refused to cover their badges.
Steve, I'm not sure how broadly they define murder. I do konw they announced that they were thinking about applying the death penalty to some contractors who had deliberately skimped on earthquake proofing in houses that subsequently collapsed, but I don't konw how much of that was hyperbole to get the accused to fess up and avoid a trial.
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