I have always been in the camp of those that think that there is life elsewhere in the universe. Statistically, the universe is too vast, practically beyond human comprehension, for there not to be some form of life elsewhere. Those that have argued otherwise always come from the point of view that Earth and its’ […]
People started using computers outside the corporate research lab in the 1950s. The early computers created in garages were brought to market in the mid 1970s. The PC came out in 1981. The 1990s saw the early explosive growth of the laptop and the current decade is when the PDA and other wireless devices took […]
Last Friday, June 15, 2007, a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere was lifted out of its’ underground vault near Tulsa Oklahoma. It had been buried on June 15, 1957 to both commemorate the 50th anniversary of Oklahoma becoming a state, and to serve as a time capsule for the 100th anniversary in 2007. This led me to […]
What is the future of the book and the book publishing industry? That was the question that was in my mind while attending the Book Expo America convention this past week end. In a business that is mature, flat to down in unit sales, and seems to dearly hold on to past business practices, what […]
As mentioned in the last column I have had the opportunity to attend several conventions this year. In January I attended the Consumer Electronic Show and the NATPE television conference, both in Las Vegas and in February the Chicago Auto Show. This past weekend I was in New York attending the BEA book publishing convention. […]
Book Expo America is the large annual convention of the book publishing industry. For the past few days, thousands of people descended on the Javits Center in New York for the annual ritualistic gathering of the tribes of this 500 year old business. As regular readers know, this year I have attended the Consumer Electronic […]
It was reported yesterday that Americans are driving less, in large part due to the high price of gasoline. For the first time since 1981 the average American motorist is driving less. After 25 years of steady increases, the growth in total miles driven has leveled off in the last 18 months. This is in […]
Last week it was reported that the ratings board of the motion picture industry is now going to factor in cigarette smoking as part of the overall rating of a film. Films with excessive smoking will now certainly get a PG-13, if not an R rating. The goal is to cut down on the influence […]
A newspapers function is to report the news. It is also to sell newspapers. As a result we the readers usually are subjected to endless articles about national and local politics, the disaster in Iraq, the latest news of the celebrity or celebrity couple of the moment, and most recently all aspects of the global […]
We are all more aware of global warming than we were years ago. As a country we passed through the tipping point of awareness in the last year. We have a better understanding of what it is that we each do to contribute to global warming, and a number of us have taken action to […]