Ash Heap Of History

Goodbye Cable TV, Hello Google

"This diminutive device, nearly as small as a flash thumb drive, plugs right into your TV — through the HDMI port. It can stream video content wirelessly from the Internet to your TV using an Android or iOS device, or a PC or Mac, using Google’s Chrome browser, as a remote control. Chromecast could be a really disruptive product. According to a Sandvine report, YouTube and Netflix account for an estimated 49.4% share of all peak downstream Internet traffic in the U.S. Now with Chromecast, those users can steam that Internet traffic onto their TV’s easily. For a mere $35, Chromecast can turn any television into a player for streaming Internet video content." Continue reading →

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Why College Football Will Be Dead Within 20 Years

"An acronym that has higher education administrators very worried is MOOC - Massive Open Online Course. In short, a MOOC is a tuition-free online course that can be taught to a massive number of students simultaneously. Pundits often talk about 'disruptive technology'; technology that brings about massive changes in life, business, or the economy. The phrase can be overused, but if anything qualifies, MOOCs are it. It's one thing to offer a course for free online, but the idea is crazy, right, that a college or university could replace traditional classroom education with online coursework for credit or even offer an entire degree online for free?" Continue reading →

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Bad Day for Beltway Liberalism: August 5, 2013

"The reporters who work for the Post are in the wrong profession. Their peers in Boston could do nothing. They sat their until most were fired, one by one. They will suffer the same fate. The industry is a buggy whip. The industry was liberalism’s trifecta: newspapers, television networks, and the school system. Two are bleeding red ink. The third soon will be, as online education enables students to live at home, take courses online, graduate with accredited degrees, and pay $15,000 in tuition, total. A widely accepted estimate is that half of all American universities will go under over the next five decades." Continue reading →

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Amazon.com Creates 5,000 Jobs, Destroys 25,000 in the Process?

"Amazon has managed to grow to its current level with just about 89,000 employees, or almost exactly half of TJX’s workforce. To do that yet pull down 150% more revenue makes Amazon about five times more efficient than TJX, measured by retail sales per staffer. Amazon is able to do so because the number of shoppers who can be served per warehouse employee is much higher than at a typical retail location—especially the smaller stores that TJX mostly uses. One IT guy can take the midnight shift and keep a few thousand servers up and running, but one janitor cannot clean the floors at two locations, let alone 400." Continue reading →

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The New York Times Company Sells the Boston Globe at a 96% Loss

"The New York Times Company bought the Boston Globe in 1993 for $1.1 billion. It just sold it for $70 million. But we must factor in price inflation. At 1993′s prices, the Times Company paid the equivalent of $1.75 billion today. So, the company lost a staggering 96%. This shows where print newspapers are headed: down. This also shows where the New York Times is headed: down. American liberalism has bet the farm on three institutions: newspapers, network television, and the education system. All three are under assault by the Internet. The profits are shrinking for newspapers and network television." Continue reading →

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Graphic: How Just 6 Corps Own 90% of The Media

"One graphic really highlights just how tightly controlled the information we are delivered truly is — and how a total of only 6 corporations run the show. From Time Warner (CNN, HBO, TIME) to GE (NBC, Comcast), a whopping 6 corporations control 90% of the mainstream media within the United States. The amount of revenues from the tightly controlled mainstream media machine are enough to beat out Finland’s entire GDP, buy every NFL team 12 times, and fund the government bailout of General Motors 5 times." Continue reading →

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Limbaugh and Hannity to be dropped by major radio network

"The country’s second-biggest radio network is planning to dump conservative commentators Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh at the end of 2013 to offset a loss in revenues, Politico reported on Sunday. Think Progress reported that the duo has lost 240 advertisers between them since 2012, with Limbaugh in particular being targeted for a boycott over his derogatory remarks against womens’ rights activist Sandra Fluke. That same month, Limbaugh complained that Fox News was losing out on advertising money because 'the media buyers at advertising agencies are young women, fresh out of college, liberal feminists who hate conservatism.'" Continue reading →

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Inside TimeSpace, the New York Times’ new startup accelerator

"The program is the first experiment of its kind by the owner of the country’s second largest newspaper. It’s goal is to infuse the 162-year-old Times Company, battered, bruised and barely profitable thanks to digital disruption, with some of that sweet innovation nectar startups are known for. In exchange, the startups get access to decision makers, lawyers, and editorial staff at the New York Times, with a little prestige and credibility to boot. The unspoken hope is that the entrepreneurial spirit will rub off on the slow-moving Times Company like osmosis." Continue reading →

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Girl Scouts auction off plantation amid financial troubles

"The camp in South Carolina is one of dozens of Girl Scout camps in 28 states that have closed, been sold or are for sale as chapters across the United States face financial struggles. The realignment that took full effect in 2009 consolidated local councils. It reduced their number by two-thirds, eliminated staff jobs and set new Girl Scout priorities for building leadership skills. Girls Scouts has about 2.3 million youth and about 800,000 adult members nationwide. The organization is struggling with plummeting membership, a dearth of adult volunteers, declining cookie sales and a pension fund that is hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt." Continue reading →

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New Hampshire governor signs medical marijuana bill into law

"New Hampshire on Tuesday became the 19th state to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes. 'This legislation is long overdue and comes as a relief to the many seriously ill patients throughout New Hampshire who will benefit from safe access to medical marijuana,' said Matt Simon, a New Hampshire-based legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project. The Republican-led New Hampshire legislature approved a similar medical marijuana bill last year, but it was vetoed by Democratic Gov. John Lynch. The governor claimed the proposed law would be abused by those who didn’t really need the drug." Continue reading →

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