IN THE BEGINNING, THERE WAS THE ALGORITHM: Meet the Library of Babel: Every Possible Combination of Letters That has Been (or could be) Written. Well, you insomniacs were looking for something to pass the time, right?
Author Archive: Sarah Hoyt
September 30, 2015
HOW LONG BEFORE WE HAVE A MINISTRY OF MARRIAGE, SPYING IN YOUR ROOMS TO MAKE SURE NO ONE IS GETTING HURT OR SLIGHTED: Friended by Mandate.
OIKOPHOBIA IS A FORM OF DEMENTIA: It leads you defend all those who injure your home. The City Council’s ‘heroes’ from hell.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Want to Create a Language Like Dothraki? Start Here.
SO THAT’S MALE PRIVILEGE: The MMA fighter held back by F-cup breasts.
PROVE THAT WASN’T THE INTENTION ALL ALONG: Obama has turned Putin into the world’s most powerful leader. After all, he did say he wanted to be the anti-Reagan.
AGATHA CHRISTIE USED TO PLOT WHILE DOING DISHES: I often plot while ironing. Wash the Dishes and Cleanse the Mind? And if that doesn’t work, hey, you still have clean dishes.
THEY SUCK AT OMELETS TOO 100 MILLION BROKEN EGGS, STILL NO OMELET: Why Socialism Can’t Make a Sandwich.
September 29, 2015
THINK HOW MANY MORE THINGS SHE COULD WRECK: How Hillary wrecked the State Department’s digital information system.
IS FAUXAHONTAS RUNNING? Behold, the young and edgy face of the left. And their fiery speaker against injustice. Elizabeth Warren just gave the speech that Black Lives Matter activists have been waiting for.
SCHADENFREUDE: Follow Up: Peeling the Onion of Socialism.
I TRY NOT TO LINK MY BLOG: But I had a guest post about Mars that was fascinating.
THEY STILL GET CREDIT FOR GETTING THEIR MESSAGE OUT: When the turnout they achieve is not what they expected. OTOH for conservatives, there is no turnout big enough to get any credit.
SOME HOPE FOR A CHANGE: Larry Correia’s election predictions.
GOT A WEEK AND SEVERAL NOTEBOOKS: What’s Wrong With Common Core?
YES. NEXT QUESTION: Do We Suffer From Adventure Deficit Disorder?
I’LL BELIEVE IT WHEN I SEE IT: Some good education news for a change.
September 28, 2015
THE DOUBLE DOWN: What Do You do When Technologies Change And Your Business Model Becomes Obsolete. This post was put up in one of my facebook groups and as I was on a break from The Novel tm, I read it. I got to a paragraph and my mouth dropped open. The post is about the publishing earning reports that shows that, in traditional publishing, since Amazon stopped forcing traditional publishers to put up ebooks for under 9.99, ebooks have been selling less than paper books. This is no more than any business person knows: raise prices, sell fewer units. Particularly in a recessionary environment. My friend Cedar blogged about the report here. None of which prepared me for these reported news:
Publishers, seeking to capitalize on the shift, are pouring money into their print infrastructures and distribution. Hachette added 218,000 square feet to its Indiana warehouse late last year, and Simon & Schuster is expanding its New Jersey distribution facility by 200,000 square feet.
Penguin Random House has invested nearly $100 million in expanding and updating its warehouses and speeding up distribution of its books. It added 365,000 square feet last year to its warehouse in Crawfordsville, Ind., more than doubling the size of the warehouse.
“People talked about the demise of physical books as if it was only a matter of time, but even 50 to 100 years from now, print will be a big chunk of our business,” said Markus Dohle, the chief executive of Penguin Random House, which has nearly 250 imprints globally. Print books account for more than 70 percent of the company’s sales in the United States.
The company began offering independent booksellers in 2011 two-day guaranteed delivery from November to January, the peak book buying months.
DO read the whole thing. Even if publishing isn’t of interest to you, watching an entrenched industry deal with catastrophic change is fascinating. (And because it is my business, more than a bit scary.)
THE WAR ABOUT STAR WARS: A matter of canon.
IT’S A FLACCID AND UNCONVINCING WEAPON: Macho talk is Obama’s only weapon against Putin.