Notes on Newspapers' Continuing Death
[Crossposted from the finger-pointing over at ATLMalcontent and DriftGrift (both of whose sites show up in my blogroll)]. It's more than a bit sad to think of newspapers not existing, but that's the point of what's going on. Broadcast media is a niche market at best, because (a) it is broadcast, and (b) there might not be an outlet in the world that isn't compromised by some interest or another. Combined, they are the long-term reasons why the Internet has eaten everyone.s lunch. There are too many outlets for interests to control and maintain influence, and while some of those outlets are forums, there will always be an open channel somewhere. In those open channels, Assembly and discussion prosper. To the degree that an interest seeks to control its message, both that interest and its messenger incur a disadvantage. Case in point: DaleC and ICAtlanta {regular posters at that blog}, who find it necessary to spam threads with talking points. They have to resort to spam, in an effort to spike discussions that can neither be buried by an editor, nor driven out of existence with 'market forces' meant for that purpose. Yes, I am directly comparing the newspapers. decline to that of the (so-called) Conservative movement; they are all based on controlling interests who are similarly dissolving in a bog of free assembly. With regard to the comparisons between newspapers and television.there is a vital difference, in that television can deliver live video. Otherwise, television has coped so far, by directly inflating its prices, as measured by the 'top-tier' subscription packages and channels. That fluff will die off, much as the newspapers have, but television will still have live programming to fall back on (as well as any shenanigans involving bit-rated internet). |
| posted at: 03:57 | permanent link to this entry |
Today's topic for discussion is:
| Mathematical Graphs. |
| posted at: 03:50 | permanent link to this entry |
| ...lurking around my bathroom, sopping up bits of water from the shower, and enjoying some central heat. That's right; the ants are back. |
| posted at: 03:47 | permanent link to this entry |
| [cross-posted from some discussion board or another]
Wow, the dive bars...there was the one I worked at in college, where I baked (and burned) pizzas...lots of characters in that place, actually. There were quite a few 'ghosts' (aka retired spooks) failing to unsee their careers; quite a few washed up hippies; a construction crew (including the lesbian metal worker duo), a few police, and a vampire. Throw in a hundred college students and a band a few times a week, and you had a cool joint. [I admit to smoking up that room so bad (with a burned pizza) one night, that I reduced the big-screen TVs to accent lighting.] Then, there was the proper biker bar outside of town, situated on a nice, flat, 3-mile stretch of road. There would easily be 2-dozen bikes parked outside on any given night. 30-40 giant bikers who could (and would, if needed) beat the living shit out of anyone who caused trouble, and a 4-pound terrier to nip at newbies' ankles for entertainment. Then, there are all the old bars around Atlanta; dives all over the place. There are even holes around here. And by 'holes', I don't mean 'hole in the wall'; I mean 'where drunks learn the true meaning of pain, as they are slowly digested over the course of a thousand fifths.' The innate counterculture of Atlanta tends to forment the dive bar. The Highlander, The Independent, The Local, My Sister's Room (RIP), Smith's, The Freight Room (RIP), Moe's and Joe's, Northside Tavern, The Clermont Lounge, The Royal Oak, The Righteous Room, and a thousand others, all have serious dive qualities about them. |
| posted at: 03:46 | permanent link to this entry |