Alibaba, the Chinese E-Commerce Giant IPO in August of 2014

What will the Alibaba IPO mean for it’s original investor, Yahoo!  Yahoo invested 1 Billion dollars in 2005 for a 40% stake in Alibaba. After pulling out $7.6Billion in 2013, they still have a 23% stake in the company that will be valued from $100 Billion to 200 Billion. Yahoo is about to get a huge cash infusion.

 

Alibaba is the Chinese E-commerce site. They are to China what Amazon is to the United States but with a distinct difference that they are the exclusive middlemen to a purchase between a buyer and a seller. That leaves Alibaba in the advantageous position of not having to inventory product. Alibaba is a conglomerate of businesses consisting of their main Alibaba brand that links business to business transactions and it’s consumer to consumer business portal called Taobao that functions similarly to Ebay and offers over 1 billion products for sale by over 7 million unique sellers at any given time. They also own Alipay which is the Chinese Paypal and has 300million users and controls half of the market. They also own Tmall, Juhuasuan, e Tao, Ali Express, Ali Cloud Computing, ChinaVision Media Group, Laiwang, Youku Tudou and US shopping site 11 Main. All develop different aspects of the internet like social networking, instant messaging, video sharing and archiving, and cloud storage to be brief.

Alibaba files for their Initial Public Offering (IPO)

In April 2014, Alibaba filed the paperwork disclosing their future public offering. It was a placeholder filing for only $1 billion dollar but the consensus opinion is that in August when the IPO happens the company valuation should be in the $150-$200 Billion ballpark. To put this in perspective, Facebook IPO had the company selling shares at $38 per share for a valuation of $104 Billion, so the Chinese E-commerce company IPO will dwarf that by the factor of two possibly.

What does this mean to it’s original investors.

Two companies were the original venture capitalist stake horse for Alibaba in 2005. One was Yahoo! And the other is Japan’s Softbank with a 36% share. Both publicly traded companies. Yahoo! Invested $1 Billion dollars in 2005 for 40% of the company. It currently has a 22.6% after selling stock back to Alibaba for $7.8 Billion in cash in September of 2003. Since the IPO filing disclosed that Yahoo! will be required to sell 40% of it’s outstanding shares for the IPO, Yahoo! will in turn get a cash infusion between $24 and $44 BILLION Dollars depending on valuation An interesting observation is that at a current price of $33 a share for YHOO, the stock valuation in Alibaba may be greater than the total valuation of Yahoo! As a whole. Yahoo current valuation is at $33.8Billion dollars

What will Yahoo do with the money?

In my opinion, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has done an amazing job so far She has acquired 37 companies in the two years since becoming CEO. She has hired Katie Couric from Television to be the Yahoo Spokesperson and hired the New York Times Tech editor, David Pogue to start a digital tech magazine. Her strategy focusing on smaller business acquisitions to introduce a new customer to Yahoo! and integrating new products and services into the business model takes time to evaluate it’s success but is a logical move to strengthen it’s core business and compete with Google and Facebook . The coup de grace is the acquisitions of major companies with high profiles on the internet like Tumblr, Snip IT, and Wander. These acquisitions when looked at as an overview fill some of the niches that Yahoo needed in the mobile, social networking, instant messaging and video necessities of the web. I foresee a major purchase by Yahoo before the 2014 calendar year ends that will bring all 37 of these acquisitions to a pinnacle of usefulness through integration.

How to capitalize on the Alibaba IPO

Buy either Yahoo or Softbank and hope for a higher valuation. Yahoo is on a dip on their high price of $41 in January 2014 and closing today under $34. TheStreet has given it a B rating and a BUY determination. Soft Bank on the Tokyo Stock Market closed at $74.75 with a yearly high of $88. Softbank has announced that it has plans to hold on to 30% of it’s shares after the IPO so they are obviously bullish on the long-term future growth and business model of Alibaba. At the end of May 2014, Softbank stock slipped below $70 and I feel that is an extremely profitable target price to buy. Alibaba is a giant of a company with huge potential and little concrete competition with a huge head start and now a cash infusion. Old expression, “the rich get richer.” This is as true a statement as you can make concerning the longtime potential of Alibaba as an investment vehicle for outstanding performance and long term growth in the largest business and consumer market in the world. You can take advantage now by buying shares of Yahoo! And Softbank.
Sources: NBC News, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Forbes, IBN Live, TheStreet, Market Watch

Lessons for the Novice Internet Content Writer

Writing online comes with many early lessons needing to be learned. The learning curve for some can be tricky and time consuming understanding the differences in writing style, writing level and the way people read online content.

 

Writing for publication on the internet is a totally different experience than writing for other media mediums. Careful thought about how people search for information coupled with strong use of search phrases and article structure will be the keys to reaching and engaging the readers.

Early Lessons I learned writing on the Internet

• Be direct with short, concise sentences.
• The appropriate writing level needed to reach the reader.
• Small blocks of text comprised of one or two thoughts set off by a bold sub-heading.
• The use of action oriented sentence structure rather than passive tenses.
• Thought about search engine popularity when it involves words and phrases.
• The “Golden Triangle” and the importance of front loading major information early in the article to engage and keep the reader.
• The use of referencing to credit for information sourcing.
• The importance of respecting the copyright of photos and information.
• Understanding that when reviewing copy for typos, the eye reads differently online as opposed to print. Get someone to proofread for you if possible.

Be Direct

When writing online, it is imperative to think about time restraints of the reader. Understand that hey want the information delivered without any pomp and circumstance. Writing creatively is fine in novels and short stories but the ability to deliver information in short, concise sentences is important to keeping the reader engaged.

Structure of online content differs than conventional print content

The average internet reader spends as little time as possible devouring information. They tend to read 25% slower than print medium and scan pages on the web rather than reading them. This is the reason that 5 and 6 sentence blocks of information are important with bolded sub headings to keep the reader engaged. The average internet reader reads at a 7^th grade reading level so the use of complicated words or writing styles is adverse to most readers and will result in them finding more “friendly” writing.

Search Engine Optimization

The focus of every writer online needs to focus around how the search engines will receive an article. If an article is filled with typos, too wordy, too many backlinks, the “Search Engine Spiders,” will discredit the importance of the articles content and give I a terrible search ranking.. That will negatively affect future potential readers finding the content. An article that can’t be read is like a masterpiece from DaVinci sitting in a storage locker. If no one sees it, the best written article on the planet will be unread and mean nothing to the world.

Words and Phrases needed to be Search Engine friendly

Thinking about how people search for words and phrases is of prime importance and critical to the success of an online writer and how the article ranks on search engines in that category. These key words and phrases need to be included multiple times throughout an article for the “Google Spiders” to index the keywords into a category. Learning this early online lesson will result in more readers engaging with your content and a higher chance of better search engine rankings and other mainstream major websites backlinking to your article.

The Golden Triangle

The Golden Triangle is a term used on the web in the writing community on how the reader scans a web page. It is of extreme importance to understand how people read on their PCs, Mobile phones and Ipads. All of these devices offer different experiences for the user and require the writer to write with the focus on where things are placed on the page in the article. The Golden Triangle rule is keep your most important information on the left side of the page and at the top and funnel the less information down he page. In general, keep locations and dates to the right side of the page.

Proper Referencing and Respecting Copyrights

All information taken or farmed from other places whether it be print, web, television, or radio needs to be referenced in the article. Use of backlinks to that information is critical for credibility and preventing accusations of plagiarism. Respecting copyrights needs to be maintained. Crediting and/or obtaining permission to use content and photographs is common courtesy and also keeps you on the right side of the law.

Proofreading

Nothing reads as poorly as a page full of typos. Poor grammar, bad sentence structure, misspellings and poor punctuation make a reader uncomfortable in accepting the content’s credibility and makes them want to just click on another article. Google Spiders also hate typos and misspellings as it influences their decision to classify an article as quality or poor content. The Google Spiders can make or break the success of an article so a thorough proofreading is an important lesson for the online writer to learn as early as possible. Try to get an uninterested third party to proofread the article before submitting for publication.

Let an article sit for a day before publication

It’s important to let an article sit before publication. This way, you will return the following day to an article that is “new” to you again and typos that you skimmed past will be blatantly obvious. Also, every proofread leaves us with opportunity to rewrite wordy sentences or choose more search engine optimized words. Proofreading will never cost you anything but a few minutes but catching a few typos and improving he article is worth every second of effort.

Denise Needs the Human Touch; Donate to Her Gofundme!

Follow the link to go to Denise Beckel’s GoFundMe page.  

Denise has struggled with life threatening illness since 1995. If the disease doesn’t kill her, the financial impact will kill her and her family. Read about Denise Beckel, Please reach into your pocket. Vote with your feet by donating to the Beckels.

 

When you peruse the listings on GoFundMe, you must be aware of scam postings and the genuine ones. It’s easy to by-pass the campaigns that ask for others to pay for their luxuries, like getting married in Hawaii. No way that person deserves a dollar much less the $50,000 asked for in the campaign. It is a great use of some discretionary money when you find the genuine “need” campaign. Whether it be for an injured dog rescued from a pit-bull fighting ring or to help defray the costs of a funeral and burial. The campaigns that really need help are the ones where catastrophic events happened in a person’s life or to help with medical bills of the under insured.

A Touching Campaign

I was perusing the campaigns as I have a couple of spare dollars and I like the feeling of helping someone when they need help. I came across a person with a medical condition for the last decade. I did some background on the campaign since I am a journalist and was touched by the story.

Denise Beckel

Denise Beckel is a 43 year old mother of a girl and a boy; Taylor 16, and Ryan 14. Married to Eric, a Sergeant in the NYPD assigned to the Narcotics unit in the Bronx for almost 20 years. Denise was a nurse before she was unable to continue working due to her health issue. Her health issues started in 1995 with that feeling that something was just not right. Respecting her privacy, I will cut to the chase, doctors realized she had a failing liver and without a transplant she would die. Denise waited seven long arduous years for a healthy donor Liver. During that time, she “lived” in doctor’s waiting and treatment rooms and she raised her family from young children to teenagers. Denise took a handful of pills, all sizes and shapes, everyday to try and prolong the inevitable visit from the grim reaper when her liver one day would decide not to function properly anymore.

Post Op Liver recipient

Denise got her liver seven years after waiting on the donor list. Her strength and her support system of love from her family, her aunts and uncles, and nieces and nephews gave her the strength to preserve. The strength to not give up and to raise her children. Talking to her extended family, they had little knowledge that anything was wrong, because Denise was all about, how everyone else was doing and deflected any talk about her burden. The operation went well. Her body didn’t reject the organ and everything looked like they were over the hump. Unfortunately she developed a very common disease associated with liver transplants, its called Cytomegalovirus(CMV).

Cytomegalovirus

I’m not a doctor and really can’t explain the disease so I enclosed a link, just click the name. What I did learn was that 48% of the transplant patients that contracted CMV would die in the first 5 years. That’s a coin toss folks. Put 2 people in a room and 1 won’t be there in a year. This is serious. This is life and death. This is not being around to see your son and daughter graduate college, get married, meet your grandchildren. This is tragic. All CMV patients are put on a daily cocktail of pills to take. Without them the prognosis is inevitable death. This is non-negotiable and here is the problem, the cost.  The main one is Valcyte, the most expensive drug at $5500 for a one month supply. Without the medications, the prognosis is inevitable, Death. These pill cocktails are non-negotiable and here is the problem, the cost.

Cost of the drugs to treat Cytomegalovirus

The cost to take the medication is $2500 for a 14 day supply. That’s a cost of $178.00 per day. Or a cost of $5535.00 per month. Remember there are 4.3 weeks in a month so that’s 3 extra days of $178.00. Eric, her husband being a NYPD police Sergeant has Blue Cross/Blue Shield GHI as their health care provider and they only cover half the cost of the drugs. So, every month, they have to find $2750 net dollars to pay for the prescriptions. According to the NYPD website a NYPD sergeant tops out at 98k per year gross and they pay into their own pensions. After that deduction and the government getting their share of federal tax, state tax, city tax, and FICO, let’s say there is 60% left, that leaves $44,000 a year. Divide that by 12 months is $3660. net. Now they pay the prescription and that is $3600-$2750 leaves $916.00 to pay the mortgage, food, utilities etc. Now that is depressing and the numbers don’t work. Numbers don’t lie. They will eventually go bankrupt and won’t be able to live. If this isn’t a clear case of the community needing to come together and help, really, what is?

GoFundMe for Denise Beckel

Follow the link to go to Denise Beckel’s GoFundMe page. Her Aunt and former Emergency room nurse at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx started the GoFundMe page for Denise. You can read their story there. Denise’s Mom, Theresa, Step-dad Ronnie, hate that term step-dad, he is more of a father than the real guy, so I will just call him Dad out of respect, and her brother Rich continue to support their beloved Denise. Rich is a detective in the NYPD Bomb Squad. Rich is a helluva guy and both he and Eric were at the WTC and helped at ground zero. Rich and his wife, Police Officer Diana Henderson, saw the family being swallowed by the medical bills, they tapped into their pension funds and took out money to prevent the Beckel’s from going under financially. This can’t go on indefinitely, there is only so much money, only so much “blood can you squeeze from a stone.” This is where we come in, the community.

When in need of help, we call

When you need help, you call 911. Two people in blue uniforms arrive and no matter what time of day, the weather, pr if it is a holiday, they will be at your door within minutes of being notified a member of the community needs help. They will run into a dark alley outnumbered 100 to 1 ready to give up their life to protect someone in their community. They will die to protect a stranger. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13.

It’s our turn to answer the call to help.

It is our turn. The GoFundMe posting is the Beckel family calling 911. Will we answer the call? We better because this is the way we say thank you. This is what we should do. This is the right thing to do. Let’s make that commitment and take the stand that Denise doesn’t belong just to the Beckel family but is a valuable member of mankind., of our family They say a village is needed to raise a child; a community is needed to heal it’s sick. If we all decide to give some money, together we can make their life a happy place without financial disaster waiting them. Do it because that could be your daughter, your wife, your mother in that bed staring death in the face. Just Do It. If Everyone gave as little as $20, it will help to defray their cost. What do you say. 20 bucks a reader and let’s make Denise a honorary member of our family. Makes sure you put Yahoo in the donate note section and I will personally list your name in a future article to thank you personally. Thanks and God Bless Denise and he family. All proceeds from this article will be remitted to the Beckels. Please share it so more people know about this worthy endeavor. Denise Beckel GoFundMe Page.

***For the residents of New York city. There is a 10-13 fundraiser sponsored by the NYC Detectives Endowment Association on June 26^th at 7PM at St. Vartan Cathedral, 630 Second Avenue, Between East 34th & 35th Streets in Manhattan. The cost is $20 per person to benefit Denise. Please RSVP at 10-13 FOR DENISE BECKEL, WIFE OF SGT. ERIC BECKEL

GoFundMe is the Most Popular, Easiest to Use Crowdfunding Site

Need Help with Medical Bills or an Emergency?  GoFundMe has raised $290 million dollars to date. GoFundMe enables people to ask friends, family and strangers for financial assistance throughout various times of their lives when they need help with medical bills, burial assistance, or college tuition.

 

GoFundMe is a great website. It is a crowdfunding fundraising site. GoFundMe was started in 2010 and over $290 Million dollars has been raised to date. GoFundMe is filled with financial requests from people who want help with tuition bills, to third party requests to help cover the expenses of a medical crisis or to bury a loved one. Some of the stories will make you cry and other requests will make you want to reach through the computer screen and strangle the person wanting $50k to have a lavish wedding in Hawaii. Looking past the obvious “idiots of the internet,” there are an amazing amount of genuine requests from regular people in dire need.

 

How I found about GO Fund Me?

I think most people encounter the site for the first time because they saw it on their facebook page as a request for financial need from one of their social network friends. This is the most common way for people to get out the message. Some people find it uncomfortable asking for financial assistance and this takes some of the sting out of it. It also allows people that don’t want to or don’t have that flexibility in their budget to not participate and still save “face.”

 

How it works?

It’s a simple process. People sign up for a free account. They build a page with an easy to navigate dashboard that tells the story of what the financial request is all about. Once the page is built, they link it to their social media sites like Facebook or Google+. They can then Tweet the sites link and in general promote it with any tool at their disposal. That’s it. Now the money comes in and it will be available as it rolls in, not waiting for a goal amount to be reached. When you withdraw the money it can be directly transferred to a bank account or a check request can be submitted. There is a 5-7 day processing period for either withdrawal.

 

What does it cost?

For the people donating, it costs nothing. For the hosts of the event, Go Fund Me does take 5% of each donation to run the overhead cost of maintaining servers and hiring employees. They also retain 3% when making a withdrawal, so 8% will come off the top. I do recommend if someone wants to make a large donation. Different arrangements should be made to avoid that 8% fee. The site is really about collecting the smaller amounts from many people. You will be surprised at how quick some $20 bills add up.

 

 

How long are the campaigns?

You set the duration of a campaign. You will continue to have a “live” page till you turn it off. Most people have a financial goal in mind and easily readable stats on how well, the campaign is doing in comparison to the goal. Most people never take down the page in testament to the generous donors. The actual goal will never come into play in a real world scenario. No matter the goal, every penny collected will go to the recipient of the campaign.

 

Does it have to be a public campaign?

It doesn’t have to be a public campaign and you don’t have to promote it on any social media site. You can build the page and hand out the link independently to whom you like. Keep in mind, Go Fund Me success happens when lots of people know about it. People you know and strangers can all be potential donors. So it is in your campaign’s interest to get the word out and keep the site public. There is nothing wrong to ask for a hand up when you need one legitimately.

 

Type of campaigns

There are many categories on the site and you have a wide range of what is socially acceptable and even what isn’t that is on the site. Some examples of some categories are:

• Accidents and Emergencies
• Babies, kids, and families
• Business and Entrepreneurs
• Celebrations and special events
• Community and Neighbors
• Medical, Illness and healing
• Funerals, Memorials and Tributes

Beware of the Net

Everyone should beware of course of con men. This isn’t Disney and there are a lot of predators with no morals in the world. So, do your due diligence before you donate. See, if there are links maybe showing an article on what the campaign is about. If the campaign is requesting money because a woman had a birth of 12 kids and she needs the assistance then I am sure there is some news about her. Don’t be gullible. Remember to check authenticity. There is nothing wrong with being guarded but don’t let that prevent you from being generous either.

 

Feels good giving someone a hand up

We need to remember our humanity. We need to be thankful for what we have and also remember some people have a real tough road in life. They may at times need the community to help them overcome a burden. Not everyone is financially solvent to handle every emergency that life throws at them. It is said, it takes a village to raise a child and it takes a community to support it’s needy. Give what you can and the smallest contribution is a more than welcomed and appreciated and as you hit the donate button, say a quick prayer that you or a love one won’t be building a GoFundMe page in the future because of some unexpected life catastrophe.

Why I Love Google’s Panda 4.0

Google is the Internet Police of Content.  Google rolled out a new search engine ranking system called Panda 4.0. It will again redefine how a search engine ranks websites. It will filter the junk content from the quality content. Many will hate Panda 4.0 but I love it. Find out Why?

 

Panda 4.0 is here and it isn’t going anywhere. If you are unfamiliar with Google’s search engine program, it is a content ranking quality quantifier. It is a program used to establish a pecking order in the search results ranking when people search for a subject. This type of algorithmic proprietary system has been tweaked, overhauled, redesigned, lamented and cursed and is basically the albatross of every person who does anything commercially on the internet.

Search Engine Optimizers

Cottage industries like Search Engine Optimizers (SEO), who do nothing but figure out how to “beat the system,” getting their websites a top listing are the bane to the optimum internet user experience. Their goal is to, at least get a first page listing, but the holy grail of success is to get the first listing on the first page. If that happens, that website will be a high traffic money making site with oodles of commercial success. Without tweaking the system and benefiting from “dirty tricks,” this is an impossibility for most websites unless they are extremely “niche unique.”.

Panda 4.0 Rolls Out

On May 21, 2014, Panda 4.0 was rolled out and it has truly upset a lot of these people. These people aren’t the mainstream players that have good content sites that “naturally” rank high because they do as they say, they deliver high quality content that the internet searcher is looking for. Imagine if Google didn’t have this technology in place. The internet would be an uncluttered world and every search would be an arduous sifting of useless junk content to find what you were looking for and in essence the internet would be “broken” and useless to everyone. These content filters remove the junk or bury it so far down the search listings, people will never find it. It’s like that junk content web page went into the “Witness Protection Program” and never was heard from again.

Panda 4.0 is the policeman of the internet

The same people who fear cameras in stores, will fear Panda 4.0, the unscrupulous “shoplifters of virtual time.” These people that manipulate the rankings with key word stuffing, artificial backlinks, spamdexing, bots that “like” an article, and bots that comment on an article,” all in the name of getting a higher ranking on Google and other search engines are the reason for “internet policeman of content”. These manipulators do a disservice to every user on the web. They steal people’s time. And in life, time is the most valuable commodity we own.

What would happen if there was no Panda 4.0 policing the internet?

There was an experiment done by Psychologist Robert Epstein and written about on PolicyMe, called “Google’s Secret Search Algorithm Could Manipulate the Results of an Election.” The experiment was the creation of a search engine called “Kadoodle.” It manipulated the search rankings to see if it could influence a person’s thoughts on a specific politician. He used Kadoodle to restructure the search rankings of a political candidate. It pushed one of the candidates to the top of the listings and it buried the other opponents listings to the back of the search pages. Epstein had a poll conducted on each candidate’s popularity before and after the experiment. The conclusion at the end of the experiment was that the manipulated “favorite” candidate popularity shifted tremendously in his favor and that 75% of the people polled had no awareness that the search engine results were manipulated rankings and their perception of the candidate. Subliminal messaging meets technology in cyberspace version 2.0.

Google President

With $20 Billion dollars spent annually on political elections, could you imagine if Panda 4.0 wasn’t “policing” the internet. How long before a Presidential election would be manipulated? With a 4% margin of victory in the last presidential election, a “Google President of the United States” would eventually be a reality sitting in the Oval office and not some experiment by a psychologist any longer.

Who is afraid of Panda 4.0?

Simple answer. People who manipulate search engine results and people that pollute the internet with poor quality content are terrified of Panda 4.0. Otherwise, no one else cares. If an article is judge and ranked on merit, only cheaters would care. Want higher search rankings? Offer more relevant, engaging content. Finally, Panda 4.0 will be something to level the playing field and disarm the manipulators and welcomed by the people who are playing fair. I’m not afraid, I love Panda 4.0.

Panda 4.0 impact on me

As a freelance writer, I write content to get paid and I am not concerned if Panda 4.0 buries my article in the search rankings. I don’t care because my articles shouldn’t be on the first page of a search engine and in most cases probably not even the first 5 pages. When I do get good rankings on one of my articles, I am very happy. It shows me that I wrote a good article and I have quality engaging content. When my articles get buried, it forces me to work harder. I am quite happy with these filtering processes as they force me to build my brand of readers and not hope to stumble upon thousands of people looking for a particular topic with nefarious methods of inducement. I say thousands cause it is all about “Page Views” on the commercial side of the internet to direct people using content to drive consumers to advertisers. And there isn’t anything wrong with that in a capitalistic world. Without commerce, everything grinds to a halt. No one forces anyone to click a banner ad or a sponsor ad.

Panda 4.0 impact on others

Panda 4.0 immediately impacts people who write garbage content. I mean the authors of articles like, “10 interesting facts about…..,” that are simply “copy paste jobs” compiled in meaningless lists stuffed with keywords that are useless time and byte wasters. They “steal” information, rewrite it by changing a few words and sell it as their own all in an effort to collect clicks and get paid. They are information thieves and steal the viewers time. They are the ones who fear Panda 4.0. They know their days of manipulating a system are drawing to a close. The wizard behind the curtain has been unveiled. They are the bane of the internet user and advertiser and should be exterminated. They are the reasons that bona fide writers on “content farms” get a bad rap and are internally despised by their own kind. When these impostors are gone, I will dance with profound happiness and again be reminded that there are no shortcuts in life.

I love Panda 4.0

I love Panda 4.0 because of the ability to cleanse the system of riffraff manipulators and contributors of pollution on the internet. I love Panda because it levels the playing field for all people to get good rankings. I love Panda 4.0 because it is a “report card” on a piece of content. “Grade A” content will receive high rankings and a high volume of viewers and “Grade F” content will be buried many pages deep in the annals of the search engine and not have an opportunity to waste someone’s time and an advertiser’s money. I also think the manipulators in the long run will love and embrace Panda 4.0 because it will enable them to cease their larcenous behavior and concentrate on something positive. The “fluff article” writers will also look back on Google panda 4.0 with love because it saved their souls. Imagine dying knowing that “The Best of…or The 5 most interesting…” articles was your claim to fame as a writer. That would be tragic considering they all joined to embrace the pen to express themselves and let the power of the “page views” change their ambitions all for 30 pieces of silver.

I feel like Jerry McGuire

“Who’s Coming With Me!” as Tom Cruise grabs the goldfish and asks his fellow employees who will join him after he published his manifesto on what is wrong with his industry and is being terminated. One person stood with Jerry and the rest of the office stayed in their own goldfish bowl. It is easy to stay. It is easier in life to cheat. It is easier for a ballplayer to take steroids to excel at their sport. It was easier for Rosie Ruiz, to hop the subway and cheat the organizers of the 1980 Boston marathon and say she won a hard race, than train hard and win it by merit.

Cream rises to the top

Panda 4.0 is nothing more than a filter. The content cream rises to the top and the content junk plunges to the bottom. Panda 4.0 is the Police of the internet. If Google wasn’t protecting us from the manipulators of information, the poor quality content and the thieves who steal our time by wasting it with frivolous information only serving their selfish agendas to make money, Who Would?

 

I Hate Reddit

Reddit is a Social Bookmarking Site that Sucks.  Reddit is a good idea with a poor real world execution. Reddit favors cliques and overzealous moderators ahead of people interacting sharing content. Reddit is an internet popularity contest. Reddit isn’t about sharing content, it’s organized trolling.

 

If you want to experience High School again and all the cliques and bullying that made high school a really “fun” experience, please go to Reddit. If you aren’t familiar with Reddit, it is a social bookmarking site where people post links to articles they find interesting. Readers either up or down vote the content and the article goes up and down the page rankings. On paper, I am sure it looks like a great idea but their website is flawed. The way it is set up it would only operate in a utopian world and the internet is as far away from Utopia as you will find in life. The experience is by far one of the worst encounters of bullying and gang mentality behavior that you will ever encounter.

The dynamics of Reddit

Reddit first off is very unfriendly to even look at. It is framed on the left side with sub topics and to be honest I am not even sure what all the links do. The top is another mess. It has all these topics like, television, sports, movies, etc. Problem is that is just the first layer of the onion. And this is one giant onion or maze to navigate. They call these main topics Reddits. Ok that’s easy enough, yes? Problem is they now have subreddits and they are subtopics and they have so MANY Reddits your brain will explode. An example of a topic and watch how far the chain spirals downward into insanity.

The Tree of Reddit

• Each Main topic has 6 categories, hot, new, rising, controversial, top, gilded, wiki and promoted
• Each main topic now has subtopics; example: Sports has Pro Sports, College Sports, Action Sports, Winter Sports, Other Sports

Then each subtopics have their own subtopics, called subreddits and that could be hundreds.

Example of subreddits of a Reddit: NFL

• a subReddit for all 32 teams plus the below subreddits are just a small portion
• /r/nflfandom – NFL Show & Tell
• /r/nfffffffluuuuuuuuuuuu – NFL Memes
• /r/nflcirclejerk – Do it for Tebow
• /r/nflroundtable – NFL Discussion
• /r/nflofftopic – r/NFL for non NFL topics
• /r/nflfilms – NFL Films
• /r/madden – NFL Madden
• /r/nfl_draft – NFL Draft
• /r/nflblogs – NFL Blogs
• /r/nflgifs – NFL Gifs

Main Problems of Reddit that makes it a horrible experience

Main issue: IT IS DRACONIAN !!

1. Can only post a link once every 10 minutes and if you do three in 30 minutes, they put you on time out for one hour and stand you in the corner. They even have this obnoxious comment that comes up that says, “You have been doing too much, slow down” and then the punishment, no posting anything for an hour. “Are ya kidding me?” was my first reaction.

2. It is cliquish. Each subreddit is a room basically where all the relevant posts live. And in each room is a moderator, usually upwards of 10 people wielding the moderator hammer, all site members and they are the “guardians of content and the enforcers of law”in that room. Are ya kidding me? Again that was my first thought when I ran into one of these morons. What are we in prison or back in high school or was I in a prison made up of high schoolers. Hell, it was really weird. And the problem was there is zero structure between rooms. Each room is a world unto itself and every room has different rules.

3. All different rules with no standardization in each room. Imagine if every block in New York City had it’s own laws. Well, no need to imagine. There is a world like that, it is called Reddit. If someone told me this was real, I would have said, no way. But it is and these worlds are controlled by people who think they are the kings and they have the button to delete any content you post or any comment you make. Disagree and they probably will ban you. I haven’t made it that far yet but it is coming. In the rooms, it lists the rules. And being a good chap I try to conform when I can and really don’t care about making a stand on principle. I just want to do my business and leave. But it is very hard to be able to do this when every room you enter, you must spend 10 minutes looking at that FAQ to see if you are allowed to breath in that room. I did have a question about a posting I wanted to make and didn’t want to violate room etiquette so I mailed the room moderators, that was last week and still no answer back, but I can imagine they would have be on me like a fly on a cow-patty if I posted what I wanted and it violated one of their draconian rules.

4. The voting system is a sham. If you get more than 3 votes down, there is no way the article you are recommending will post well on the site. And there are a group of people who vote up their stuff and down anyone’s content or links that isn’t part of their group. So either join the gang or be ostracized.

Reddit is a waste of time

One of the worst sites I have been on in the last 17 years of surfing the internet. No standardization and over-organized makes it a sloppy experience. It almost feels like you are walking around blindfolded without a sense of direction. The rooms are moderated by a bunch of overzealous, thugs who think that opinion is for themselves only. Welcome to the North Korea of the internet!

There is no standardization of rules and that leads to a subjective experience subjugated by pretentious tyrants. Save yourself some time. Find a different social bookmark site, this one is broken. It isn’t just me saying it Type in Reddit sucks and watch 55 million results pop up on Google. Only 17.5 Million when you type in I Hate Reddit. And I thought I was alone. ROFLMAO!

Reddit, if you are reading this as I assume you are since one of your worms probably found it and is disseminating it through your little world. Here is my rule. Enjoy the journey, there is only one.

 

 

 

Gimme Fiverr!!

 

A fun website where people buy and sell products and services for $5. A fun, addicting site where people list all the zany and cool things that they will sell you or do for $5. Anyone can buy or sell. Each posting offers a user review so there is no funny business. All posts have detailed descriptions and photos.

 

I am usually pretty bored and need things to entertain me, so I have lots of distractions from my big screen TV, my Xbox, to my computer to fend off boredom. My computer probably gets the most use. I am constantly downloading movie files and PDFs to add to my Terra-byte hard drive, I also write from my computer so that entails doing a bit of research sometimes. That leads me always to surfing the web and finding new things. At times, I feel like a modern day Christopher Columbus and wonder where my journey will end and what jewels of information I will find on the trip. Last week I discovered a site that really became addicting fast and I need to share it.

Fiverr

The site is called Fiverr, with two “r”s. I didn’t misspell it. You can of course click the word and it will take you away from this article to the site, but wait till the end and I promise I will embed a link at the bottom of the article. Fiverr is simply a site where people post anything they will sell you for $5 Bucks. That is about as simple as it gets. I applaud the founders on their simplicity and I absolutely love the site. What amazes me is the ingenuity and breadth of the products and services that people are willing to sell for a Fiverr. It is not only informative site but it is a laugh a minute at some of the offerings. Some are outrageous and some are actually something pretty neat, like designing logos and websites. I also found the “design a blog,” pretty cool especially if you aren’t a techie.

Fiverr Categories

• Graphics and Design
• Online Marketing
• Writing and Translation
• Video and Animation
• Music and Audio
• Programming and Tech
• Gifts
• Advertising
• Business
• Lifestyle
• Fun and Bizarre
• Other

Examples of products and services sold on Fiverr

• Write 6 headlines, slogans or catchphrases for $5
• Video Demonstrate your Product or Service for $5
• Tweet your products or services to OVER 6,000 followers for $5
• Design 1 super duper fresh flyer or brochure in HIGH quality for $5
• Do a clear British voice-over for you for $5
• Create a complete WORDPRESS website for $5
• Make you homemade soap for $5
• Play your commercial at least 20x on our radio station for $5
• Provide a life and career coaching session for $5
• Cast an extremely POWERFUL Kabbalah Spell which will make your wish come true for $5
• Pretend to be pregnant with your child after a night in Vegas for $5
• Be your guide here in Rio de Janeiro during the World Cup for $5

How it works?

Every post has a detailed description of the offer as well as photos. The post includes a “review style” feedback section where others describe their transaction and worthiness of the product or service. It also lists how many people have bought from them that particular listing and how long the wait list is and how many start they were rewarded in the past. It is extremely friendly to people who are afraid to trust people in cyberland which is always a good idea. Every post has options where they offer more services for extra money and speedy rush service, it’s called Gig Extras.

Summary

It’s a cool site filled with cool people who just don’t themselves seriously which in today’s world is kinda neat. The site in general is whimsical. It offers the non-techie a tech buddy to rely on and since the Fiverr is most cases is just a form of introduction that some of the web and blog designers offer to get noticed. They certainly aren’t supporting themselves on $5 bucks. Check the site out, at worst you will laugh at some of the offerings, be amazed people will debase themselves for a fiverr or find that techie who will help you understand WordPress and finally get that blog online. As I promised earlier in the article…FIVERR. Before you go, click my subscribe button and enjoy more articles when they get published. I won’t charge you even a nickel.

 

Kevineats is My Favorite Food Blog

 

 

A Rising Star of the Fine Dining, Restaurant Reporting and Food Photography World

Baseball used to be America’s Pastime. Food is the new reigning Champ. I live in Las Vegas, one of the food destinations of the world. Here we have every cuisine at every price point. Whether it be a $1 Nathans Hotdog at the Fremont Experience to the $425 degustation menu at Joel Robuchon . The Food Network plus the restaurant empires built by Chef/TV personalities, Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, Gordon Ramsay, and “Food Godfather” Emeril Lagasse all have been key forces driving this food renaissance explosion. These names are just a small slice of the food industry elite, I am not playing favorites, they are just the highest profile players. Deciphering the food landscape and funneling down choices when looking for restaurants or exquisite bottles of wine or sake, we rely on the “Ambassadors of the Food World,” the Food Blogger aka Foodie .

Food Blogs

Some of the most important catalysts in the food evolution revolution are the bloggers and that’s our focal point. They are the ones who help us delve deeper into our love of food. They write the restaurant reports, share the recipes, and blog the reviews on the latest kitchen gadgets. They have a loyal following and people take their word as gospel. They are our food tour guides and mentors as they help evolve our palates and expand our love of food. Their restaurant reports allow us to experience their world vicariously, free of charge in the comfort of our homes. My favorite Food Blog by far is Kevineats , which I have been reading for years faithfully. Don’t tell Kevin but I also enjoy revisiting his restaurant reports in his archives, especially when I am hungry.

Kevineats

Kevin started his food blogging journey on the MySpace platform in 2006 and transitioned Kevineats to Blogger in March of 2008, where he just celebrated his 6th anniversary there. Kevin has been blessed with a healthy appetite allowing him to consume substantial amounts of food, then walk next door to a cafe and abuse his stomach with a few more desserts. Kevin’s evolved palate, hearty appetite and interest sampling all cuisine regardless of source, texture, smell or looks makes him the ideal gourmand.

Food Porn

“Food Porn” is the staging of food in a sexy manner for glamour photography. Kevin’s photography skill has improved dramatically over the years by upgrading his camera five separate times, experimenting with shutter speed, and lighting techniques. This pursuit for perfection has greatly enhanced the quality and readability of his blog. Through dedication and perseverance, Kevin’s photography skill will continue to improve and soon he will transform into the Hugh Hefner of Food Porn.

Passion

Kevin’s passion as a cocktail connoisseur, wine expert and beer aficionado show in all his reports. Kevin is very gracious to people who post comments on his blog and interacts with his readers by answering almost every comment left in an upbeat manner very personally. Visiting Kevineats is like being welcomed into Kevin’s home showcasing his intuitive ability as a host.

The Kevineats Experience

Kevineats has a loyal, expansive following of foodies. He has reported extensively on restaurants along the California coast stretching from the Napa Valley down to Los Angeles as well as the Washington D.C. Area. Kevin has reported on many notable restaurants in New York City, Denver, Chicago and Japan as well. Kevin is the Pied Piper of foodies leading them on a culinary tour of varied cuisine. Kevineats niche and sole focus is the restaurant report. Eating out twice a week for for more than 6 years, Kevin has reported on hundreds of restaurants, many awarded the prized Michelin star , across the United States.

West Coast to East Coast Round trip via Michelin star restaurants

From his first reviews of Chicago’s Alinea , Kevin’s food journey has been documented and readers can watch that evolution firsthand. Extending North from the Napa Valley’s The French Laundry , East to New York City’s Le Bernardin . Back across the country to WolfGang Puck’s CUT steakhouse in Las Vegas for an amazing steak tasting menu. Returning to his home-base of the City of Angels, L.A., for a taco fiesta at PettyCash Taqueria or a sprint to renown Urasawa in Beverly Hills for a decadent omakase marathon. Rest assured, Kevin does it with charm, taste and class. MY favorite reports from his tour of Japan and their eclectic cuisine, spotlighting some of the best sushi in the world created by Japan’s top Itamae served omakase style . Kevineats Experience is a five-sense apprenticeship about food and drink. Don’t assume Kevin is a food snob. He isn’t. He also enjoys eating at the lower end of the economic spectrum and has reported on local burger, taco joints, and food trucks so don’t think it’s Michelin star restaurants only.

The Ultimate Gourmet

Kevineats is a vicarious experience of top restaurant dining hosted by Kevin. He orders some of the most incredible dishes, bottles of beer, wine, and champagne. He experiences the most prestigious and expensive tasting menus offered by the premiere chefs across the United States and Japan. Attending many Grand Openings, Pop-up Restaurants, and Charitable food events, we get to live vicariously through Kevin with his extensive food photography and graphic description of every meal and each bite. Kevin is on the hunt for the world’s most perfect bite and he allows us passage as a voyeur to his adventures. And let me add, no one is riding in “coach.”

Exploring Kevineats

Kevineats archives every report according to date visited and also has an interactive dining map so each reader can explore uniquely. Kevineats has been a finalist twice in the 2011 and 2012 Saveur’s Food Blog Awards. This is the equivalent of Best Artist at the Grammys. 45,000 Food Blogs nominated each year and he is a two time Finalist, that should be enough for you to follow Kevin on his culinary travels. Kevin has graciously agreed to a Q&A with yours truly so look for it in the near future. Happy Eating, Bon Appetit, Chiah Hok, いただきます or whatever language you speak it all means the same, ENJOY FOOD , it’s the one thing we all have in common.

 

Netflix Vs. Amazon Prime, Who is Winning the Streaming War?

Does Amazon Prime’s Free Two Day Shipping Trump Netflix More Expansive Movie Library?

The Heavyweight Champions of streaming digital entertainment, Netflix and Amazon Prime are headed for a huge battle in this 15 round Title match. Even though Netflix has been doing it longer, I believe Amazon will eventually go past them like they were standing still waiting for the bus. They are a bit different in what they offer but that is changing as Amazon Prime gets the hang of developing this business model on top of everything else it is doing.

 

Pros, Cons and Cost

 

NetFlix Streaming Pros:

• Free Trial for 30 days.
• In-depth TV show listings.
• Paypal accepted.
• 60,000 movie titles.
• Weekly Update of new content.
• Self Production of TV series such as: House of Cards and Orange is the New Black.
• Exclusive Marvel Television broadcasting contract for a 5 season deal for 4 Marvel Superheroes, comprising four 13 episodes seasons climaxing with a mini-series named The Defenders.
• Connect with friends and family thru Facebook and share content watched
• Parental controls limiting children.
• Has option to include a DVD mail to home program at an additional cost.

  giving another 100,000 titles to choose from.

• Cost $7.99 per month or $95.88 yearly with a price increase coming for new subscribers.

 

NetFlix Streaming Cons:

• Limited access to “new” releases.
• Poor organization of content making for difficulty browsing.
• Licensing contract expire and movies and TV shows just disappear without warning.

 

All information referenced from NetflixReview.com

 

Amazon Prime Instant Streaming Pros:

• FREE Two-Day Shipping on eligible items.
• Kindle Owners’ Lending 350,000 book Library access , 1 free book a month.
• Exclusive licensing with HBO Go, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.
• Share your shipping benefits with up to 4 members in the same household.
• Gas and time saved using the shipping option.
• Shop 10 to 20 times a year at Amazon Prime, spend under $25 each time, and need your shipment in less than a weeks time as reported by Adam Dachis in his article, Is Amazon Prime Worth It then it is worth the annual membership fee for that alone.
• On Demand Movies and Current season TV series option to pay per view

 

Amazon Prime Instant Streaming Cons:

• 40,000 title streaming library, 33% less than Netflix.
• No Facebook to share content.
• Poor organization of content.
• Poorly designed user interface.
• No Parental controls.
• Cost: $99 per year with no monthly plan, only upfront and no Paypal.

 

And we have a winner, it’s Netflix by knockout in the 10th round to retain it’s Heavyweight title. Amazon Prime is really gonna have to get into the gym and add some titles to compete. The shipping is great but it’s a distraction designed to change the conversation from their major issue, lack of content. They have only 66% of the amount of programming of Netflix. Isn’t this about streaming digital media, not shipping toothpaste via UPS? My opinion is Netflix is King of the Hill and a better value. Get Netflix and shop at Amazon making sure purchase totals higher than $25 for the free shipping. That shouldn’t be too difficult. But, watch for developments as this could change quickly as Amazon is gaining speed, strength and stamina.

 

 

Death of the Public Library

Are the days of public libraries drawing to an end? The public library is soon to be a relic from the past. The clock is ticking. With the advent and popularity of the internet and the more environmentally conscience world, the days of the printed book and library are entering obsolescence

 

The internet is in high gear. The downfall of the daily newspaper and the increased web surfing from mobile devices has embarked us all on a new path. A path that is devoid of ink and wood pulp. Paper is a fossil relic of days past. The actual physical holding of media material and the obscene waste of space housing this media is an insanity that fortunately is drawing to a close. The local library will soon be exhaling for the last time… it’s final breath.
At last count, there are 120,096 libraries in the United States. That’s an awful lot of space wasted on the storage of a material that can be reduced to a kilobyte. Imagine what could replace a library. Maybe a low cost health clinic. perhaps a community day care. The days of the Dewey decimal system are behind us. The library of today is just a money saver for the cheapos of the world who don’t want to pay for something. If anything is deemed valuable , it should be knowledge but unfortunately we have decided as a society that knowledge should be free, or well in this case accessed by anyone with a library card.

 

Books are nothing more than words formulated into ideas and printed with ink on wood pulp. Ink is by far one of the most precious commodities in the world. An ounce of ink can retail for as little as $13 to as much as $75. Which, per gallon, ranges from $1664.00 to an eye popping $9600.00. That’s almost $10,000 for the Rolls Royce of Ink. Now, let’s think about the cost of other liquids. So, for one gallon of the good ink, we could have bought 2,791 gallons of milk or 2,652 gallons of regular gasoline. Not fair to compare ink with the price of gold because one is a liquid and the other a solid, but you get my point. Ink is BLACK GOLD. And we waste it printing words on paper when we can all access any material on the world wide web and save all that ink. Converting to an electronic media standard would not only save ink, but we would save trees. Imagine that.
Imagine all the trees saved because we as a nation went paperless. 4 BILLION books were published last year in the US by approximately 75,000 book publishers. It took 30 million trees to make the paper found in those books. 30 million is about 1,150 times the amount of total trees found in Central Park in New York City. Many of these sourced trees are taken from endangered forests and cause devastating impact on the wildlife that relies on a healthy forest. The production impacts to the environment are frightening. The pulp and paper industry is the 4th largest emitter of greenhouse gases among U.S. manufacturing industries. The paper industry contributes 9% of total carbon dioxide emissions from manufacturing. Those are seriously unhealthy numbers. There are other dangers and that’s in the disposal of paper. Paper makes up 26% of landfills. Degradation produces methane, a greenhouse gas with 23 times the heat trapping capacity of carbon dioxide. Landfills are the source of 34% of methane releases, the single largest source in the U.S. Imagine if we just got away from the written word, how much cleaner the world will be. This accounting doesn’t even look into the practices of the lumber industry and the negative impact of deforestation on the environment. We need to stop the insanity.

Technology has enabled man to evolve. From writing on cave walls with charcoal, to using a feather pen and an ink well to a laserjet printer. The evolution is apparent. Now, the advent of the internet, the evolution is upon us to find a new way and to accept that way with open arms. The days of hopping in a car, driving to the library and perusing the stacks of books are over, at least they should be. The waste in time and trouble, not even counting the gasoline used to make a trip when an easier choice is available is a fool’s errand. Why are we so reluctant to not embrace the age of electronic media? Why must we hold on so tightly to the bygone days of a bound book and a huge building to warehouse those books? Why do we feel the need for every community to have multiple libraries, some towns have one of each side of the town. 120k libraries in the U.S., divided by 50 states is 2400 libraries per state. C’mon now, that might have been ok in the 1980s but things have radically changed on how we collect and share information. In a small area of Central Long Island, New York, we can find many libraries. All redundantly offering the same products. We could stand in Massapequa, a small community on the south shore of Long Island and be amazed at the amount of libraries all in a 5 mile drive in any direction. We have the two libraries found in Massapequa, we have two libraries in Farmingdale, one library in Plainedge, one library in Seaford. thats less than 5 square miles and we have 6 libraries not counting the libraries found in the local schools. All of this info can be easily found on the internet. Instead we do as these hamlets in New York have done many times over. We warehouse books in ornate buildings and then loan them out for free, subsidized by the tax revenue of those areas. That’s a plain and simple definition of a public library. What a waste of time and money, paper and ink, and real estate. Most of this info can be found on the internet.
The Google Library Project initiative was started in December 2004. It’s goal for the first 10 years, Google would create a library by scanning and digitizing 15 million volumes. As of April 2013, they surpassed the 30 million volume mark. That’s double the goal. That is now a huge amount of books that can be accessed just using a search word. No need for reference librarians, no need for people to reshelve books, no need to replace worn out copies, no need to spend millions on the actual places to store the books, no transportation costs getting the books to the library, etc, etc, etc, the list of benefits is almost endless. Wow, can you imagine, It’s an evolution or a revolution, that choice is yours. Sooner than later, Google will catch up and have scanned every book in the world. That’s a fact and it is just a matter of when it is finished. So, why isn’t there conversation going on about alternative uses for libraries. Why hasn’t the public demanded a more streamlined modern approach to electronic media. Because of money. The book publishers and the politicians of the world would keep us in the stone age if that meant the status quo wouldn’t change.

The U.S. library system is Big business. Lets; just look at the Library system of the most celebrated city in the United States. The New York Library System. It is the second largest library system in the world behind only the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.. It was established at the turn of the 20th century and has currently 87 branches with 53 million items. Although New York has 5 boroughs, the NY Library system only serves the island of Manhattan, the island of Staten Island and the Bronx. Brooklyn and Queens have their own library systems. The annual budget is $245 Million dollars per year. Imagine that, one quarter of a billion dollars. Or $5 dollars spent annually on every item warehoused in the system. That isn’t even counting the other two library systems, the Brooklyn Public Library and the Queens Borough Public Library. The Brooklyn Public Library system has 60 branches and 5 million items and a $140 million annual budget. The Queens Library system is similar. Comprised of 62 branches and 7.5million items, it operates on an annual budget of $125 million. Total of the 3 systems serving the City of New York and it’s residents is $510 million dollars per year. That’s a half Billion dollars for what easily could be accessed by all in the comforts of their own homes, or on their mobile devices anywhere.
Everyone starting to get the picture that the system is wasteful and archaic. It’s time for people to wrap their minds and embrace change especially when the pros exceed the cons so dramatically. It defies logic that people would choose to keep the brick and mortar library system. Once the books are scanned onto the net. It’s equal access for anyone. No waiting to take out a copy of a book, no fees for returning one late, no locked doors and restraint because of the hours of operation. Knowledge centers would now be open 24 hrs a day/365 days a year with no regard to weather or anything else. All one would need is an internet connection. All that cumulative time spent going to take out a book and then having to retrace the steps to return the item, saved. The three NY Public library systems combined maintain almost 200 brick and mortar buildings. Think about what these buildings could be used for in the public domain. Warehousing books is not the proper use for these buildings anymore. Not my call here, it’s evolution.

Things change. and That’s is a good thing. If not, we would all still be whipping that horse and bumping along in a buggy behind it, or we would still be starting the car by turning the crank in the front. It’s ok to write a eulogy for the Library system. Say your piece, bow your head and say goodbye. Like Blockbuster video, it has reached the end of the road. Everyone remembers the days of going to the local video store and renting a movie. No one thinking that one day, renting of a movie would be done in the comfort of their own homes over the internet at the touch of a button. But, alas, that day has come. People now subscribe to a myriad of services satisfying their entertainment needs such as Amazon Prime,Netflix, and Hulu. But the days of schlepping to the video store are over. Thank God!! Soon the movie theatres will be a relic of the past as well. People don’t want to sit in an auditorium of strangers watching a movie. If there were a viable alternative to watch new release movies from their homes. They would jump on it and leave behind the days of sticky floors, obnoxious people and overpriced concessions in a heartbeat. So, why does it antagonize people when others suggest evolving away from the brick and mortar library business. Why are people so reluctant to accept the future and the change that comes with it. Why is it so hard to change a certain generation? Why can’t they see the overwhelming benefits of electronic media. Why must they try and restrict the evolution and the natural progression of the way things change. Why won’t they just turn in their restrictive library card and subscribe to the future? Is it fear of change? I’m not sure, but I do know this. It is so much nicer and more convenient for me to google a topic and be offered many solutions that fit what I am searching for. It’s a hassle to have to hop in a car or a subway, brave the weather and restricted hours of operation to seek out the knowledge I need at a library. Isn’t life grand when you can in your pajamas google something that needs googling. Isn’t it great that the days of the morning and afternoon newspaper are behind us and the instant gratification for info is at our fingertips.
So, Why the reluctance to demolish the antiquated public library system. A high speed bullet train is to the internet what a steam locomotive is to a library in a brave analogy of learning systems. Who would opt for the steam engine over the 300 mile an hour train? No one except the fearful. So, let’s help the “fear change minded” people of the last generation, let’s forget and ignore the politicians telling us what we need. They have an agenda and that agenda is the publishers wanting to sell the libraries and Universities the books. Scholastic Corporation doesn’t donate millions in political campaigns because they are socially responsible. Nope, they are about increasing the black on their bottom line. Lots of people get fed cause of the book industry and it’s time for that to end. Society has never benefited by hanging on to an industry that should have been replaced because of an evolution of technology. Think of Film processing and Kodak. Kodak was one of the largest companies in the world but the invention of digital cameras and SD cards killed the film processing business All those 60 minutes or less film processing stores were closed in record time. Anyone miss those days where they had to drop off a roll of film, then return and pick up their photos? Nope, no crying there. So, why all the heel dragging and crying over an antiquated way to get a book? Time to embrace the future and shutter institutions that were invented in 1895. Yes, Libraries once served the greater good and were responsible for much individual success, but let’s face it, we have the internet now and wandering up and down stacks are a complete waste of time. More fun to hit a Starbucks, grab a latte and google the topic that interests you. If you aren’t gonna think of yourself, think how lovely life would be for the average student having to tuck an Ipad under an arm rather than haul a 50 pound kapsack of books.