As former NFL head coach Jim Mora might ask, “Recession? Recession? Are you kidding me? Recession?”
NBC Sells Out Super Bowl Ads for Record $206M (via NY Times)
Archive for the ‘Business’ Category
What Recession?: NBC Sells Out Super Bowl Ads for Record $206M
Posted in Business, Economy, Sports on February 1, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Google & the Future of Books
Posted in Books, Business, Science & Technology, World Wide Web, Writers & Writing on January 31, 2009| 1 Comment »
“How can we navigate through the information landscape that is only beginning to come into view? The question is more urgent than ever following the recent settlement between Google and the authors and publishers who were suing it for alleged breach of copyright. For the last four years, Google has been digitizing millions of books, including many covered by copyright, from the collections of major research libraries, and making the texts searchable online. The authors and publishers objected that digitizing constituted a violation of their copyrights. After lengthy negotiations, the plaintiffs and Google agreed on a settlement, which will have a profound effect on the way books reach readers for the foreseeable future. What will that future be?”
(via The New York Review of Books)
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The Writing Life
Posted in Books, Business, Writers & Writing on January 30, 2009| 5 Comments »
Found online today, during a waaaay-too-long procrastination break (OK, I’m not working on a novel, but still . . .):
Invaluable tips for would-be authors from the no-nonsense book How NOT to Write a Novel (via Times Online)
If all else fails, there’s always self-publishing!
Self-Publishers Flourish as Writers Pay the Tab (via NY Times)
Bongs Away! How the crusade against drug paraphernalia punishes controversial speech
Posted in Business, Counter Culture, Crimes & Misdemeanors, Politics, Popular Culture on January 25, 2009| Leave a Comment »
“Like obscenity prosecutions, paraphernalia cases often target people for conduct they believed was legal. The law in both areas is fuzzy, and drug paraphernalia, like obscenity, tends to be judged by the “I know it when I see it” method.”
How the crusade against drug paraphernalia punishes controversial speech (via reasononline)
Exporting American Values = Value Meals?
Posted in Business, Europe, Food & Wine, Foreign Travel on January 24, 2009| Leave a Comment »
“McDonald’s is planning to this year create 12,000 jobs and open 240 new restaurants across Europe, it emerged on Friday, as the fast-food chain shows signs of being one of the few global companies to benefit from the financial crisis.
In stark contrast to the multinational groups announcing record job cuts and losses, McDonald’s plans for expansion in Europe are its biggest in five years.
‘We’re certainly not slowing down,’ said Denis Hennequin, president of McDonald’s Europe as he outlined to the Financial Times his plans to hire 50 people at each of the 240 new restaurants, mostly in Spain, France, Italy, Russia, and Poland.”
McDonald’s defies downturn (via Financial Times)
[The only good news, as I see it, is the increased number of clean public toilets that tourists and locals will now be able to utilize. During various overseas travels, in need of a public toilet, I have been directed to the nearest McDonald’s which locals called “The American Embassy.”]
The 'Not-So-Rough' Guide 