Perspective. Is it
“We'll charge you for disintermediation” or “We'll Balkinize
this process and charge for each step!” Actually, both options are
available. (This article could be the plot of a Woody Allen movie)
Of
Toasters And Smartphones: Apps And The Economy
Your relationship with
your toaster is pretty simple – at least, I hope it is.
You bought your
toaster, and now you can toast things with it. Sure: there are
various bakers out there vying to sell you bread, and you need to pay
your electricity bill to keep things working. But the company that
makes your toaster isn’t hoping to take home a percentage of these
sales – and it isn’t showing ads based on your past toasting
history.
… Compare this to
your relationship with your smart phone. Yes, you did buy it, but
you likely didn’t pay full price up front: your wireless contract
subsidizes the phone. This contract, which you pay for monthly,
gives you the right to use a certain amount of data.
… Some apps are
sold for a set price; some require subscriptions. In most cases the
maker of your smartphone’s operating system – which may or may
not be the same company that made your phone – gets a cut of what
you paid for the app, or even your ongoing subscription.
… You know where
this is going, of course: advertising. But on today’s
web, this is not a simple matter of showing you ads and getting paid.
Most sites use the information you provide them – the topics you
discuss on Facebook, the videos you watch on YouTube and your Google
search terms – to show you relevant ads. Some sites take this a
step further, using
your name and picture as part of the ads other users see.
Poor Kim.
… Hollywood
Sues Megaupload, Kim Dotcom
Megaupload
was taken offline and dismantled in January 2012, but that hasn’t
stopped Hollywood chasing down the people behind it. Twentieth
Century Fox, Disney, Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures, and
Warner Bros. are amongst the studios
seeking damages of up to $175 million for the copyright
infringements they allege took place on the file-hosting service.
The studios involved
not only claim to be entitled to the maximum statutory damages of
$150,000 per copyright infringement, but also all of the profits
generated through the site. The defendants are Megaupload Ltd., its
founder Kim Dotcom, the majority shareholder Mathias Ortmann, and the
Chief Technical Officer Bram van der Kolk.
Economics?
The costs of education,
health care, and the live performing arts are growing at about the
same rate in all the OECD countries—and yet the costs of these
services are much higher in the United States. For example, U.S.
total educational spending, as a share of GDP, is about is 26%
higher than the average of the other OECD countries. A team
led by Edward N. Wolff of Bard College points out that because the
humans who provide these services aren’t replaceable by machines,
costs tend to rise inexorably, and that America got a long head start
on spending in the nineteenth century when a rapidly expanding
economy led to huge expenditures on universities, hospitals, and
cultural institutions.
SOURCE: A
comparative analysis of education costs and outcomes: The United
States vs. other OECD countries
For all my students,
but my Statistics students in particular.
Gallup
– Americans Say College Degree Leads to a Better Life
by Sabrina
I. Pacifici on April 7, 2014
Gallup:
“Americans believe in the importance of postsecondary education,
with more than nine in 10 (94%) saying a postsecondary degree or
credential is at least somewhat important and 70% saying it is very
important, similar to last
year’s findings. However, most also say higher-education
institutions must evolve to better serve the needs of today’s
students. These results are from a Nov.
25-Dec. 15, 2013, study by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation with
a random sample of U.S. adults. While Americans in every age group
are equally likely to see the importance of higher education, more
than three-quarters (77%) of those who have completed postsecondary
education themselves say it is very important to attain a certificate
or degree, compared with 60% who have some college experience and 66%
who have a high school diploma or less education.”
Could be interesting.
The
Thomas Jackson Letters
by Sabrina
I. Pacifici on April 7, 2014
“Here
you will find a unique collection of previously unpublished letters
describing facts and feelings about slavery and the civil war as seen
from the grass roots level in Reading, Pennsylvania. These detailed,
authentic, contemporary reports, most in excellent condition, have
all been left to us in the letters of rope-maker Thomas Jackson. The
author had been born and spent his early years in England but
emigrated to USA in 1829 and spent the rest of his life in Reading.
He became a fervent abolitionist and, as the war progressed, wrote
back to his cousins asking that they try to get his letters published
in the English newspapers. For
this reason, many of the letters contain virtually no reference to
family matters but concentrate instead on reporting his first hand
experiences of the civil war and the injustices of slavery. By
following Thomas Jackson’s passionate descriptions, you can now
re-live a little history and become a witness through his eyes to
some of the key events of the American civil war. In one way, you
might see these letters as propaganda seemingly intended to help
persuade the English people to not give their support to the southern
confederate states despite the massive importance of Southern cotton
to the British economy. His viewpoint was clearly one sided and did
not give the slightest consideration to the southern case for
secession and state’s rights. His support for the abolition of
slavery dominated every aspect of his political life. His obituary
in the Reading Times-Dispatch, August 7 1878 declared him to be “an
original abolitionist and a warm friend and admirer of Horace Greeley
and Thurlow Weed, and other (nationally known) antislavery
agitators.” [via Jan Swanbeck, George A. Smathers Libraries,
University of Florida]
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