Will the iPad lead to the Napsterization of Publishing?
I feel a craze coming. I think the iPad is going to do for books what the iPod did for albums—that is make them all pretty much free.
You’ve already seen the theory introduced that the real “best-selling” ebooks for the Kindle are public domain classics that sell for $0.00.
Well, thanks to the iPad, a few million more people are going to have ereaders by the summer of 2010 And those people need free shit to read. At least, I hope they will.
Let’s say 1% will.
That’s tens of thousands of people who will be reading. 1% of them may even buy some books.
Of course, most of them will steal, or “check-out” the ebooks from what I call the original Napster—the public library. And I mean steal in a good way. Please steal my free ebook about the dirty secrets of a new teacher.
No matter if iPadders buy or steal, we, wannabe writers of stories, have a very good problem.
A vast new audience of savvy, cultured early adopters need books.
Major publishers have got the machinery behind them—but could their fixation on prices result in a repeat of what happened in the music industry?
Either way, it won’t be easy. Giving away music worked well for Radiohead but not as well for Meanest Man Contest.
However, the social infrastructure of the web is improving all the time. And I believe that there are huge opportunities for writers’ with strong voices, convincing subplots and a disproportionate love for white space.
A new generation of webwriters—of, by, and for the marriage of web and story—can employ the few modicums of foresight they might have to make a name and a space for themselves in the iPad of an attractive stranger.
The Republican’s Deficit Deception: Fiscal Irresponsibility at Its Worst
The Republicans should have a Ministry of Truth to erase the history that don’t like. Instead they just blatantly lie and misrepresent the past to make their case.
As Dick Cheney has said, deficits don’t matter—except when the money is being used to create a more just, responsible society.
The fact is that the GOP purposely drove up the debt in order to prevent the government from delivering more services that help more people. They don’t believe in a government that works for anyone but businesses, banks and defense contractors, and a large debt fuels the argument that we can’t afford real change.
President Bill Clinton left this country with a SURPLUS in 2001. Of course, there was still a huge debt, but we were paying it down.
The only reason we have the debt that we do is because of the irresponsibility of George W. Bush and the Republican Congress.
Bush and Cheney cut taxes for the rich and then they cut taxes for the rich, when they were done with that they cut taxes for the rich. Just weeks after 9/11 the administration was arguing that the attack required cutting the Capital Gains taxes.
These cuts didn’t build infrastructure, fund sustainable development, keep people in their jobs or provide health care for the needy. They just lined the pockets of the top 5% of this county as this country waged war in two foreign countries. It’s unprecedented in American history and a blatant example of the irresponsibility of the Right.
Obama is trying to bring responsibility back to capitalism and create fundamental reforms that will prevent another unnecessary crisis.
Republicans can say that 2 + 2 = 5, but that doesn’t change the fact that they aren’t concerned about debt. They’re just scared to death of creating a government that actually works for people.
Obama’s Answer to the Muslim World
If there was anyone out there who still doubts the importance of electing Barack Obama President of the United States, his Speech to the Muslim World is your answer.
Of course, this one gesture can’t heal his predecessor’s seven-year plan to piss off the Muslim world.
Of course, we still have to deal with the aftermath of seven-years that flaunted International Law and common decency, mostly at the expense of the Muslim world.
Of course, there are Hawks and Conservatives that will spew vitriol against any sign of empathy for any foreigner they do not deem worthy. Hawks and Conservatives who will look to Tehran and see fundamentalists as enraged and committed as they to spreading ideas through violence.
Of course, these critics will call Obama naïve—as if a political movement that despises scientific theories like evolution, that invades non-aggressive countries without conducting a meeting of the National Security Council to weigh the move, that nominates Sarah Palin to the Vice-Presidency can expect us to take their judgment on naivety seriously.
But the image of a man who would have been declared 3/5 of a man at the founding of this country standing as the President of the United States was America’s new answer to the world. And that same man poignantly advocating non-violence is proof itself to the Muslim world that anything is possible when women and minorities are given the transformational power to vote.
He didn’t condemn the feudal states that oppress their people. He didn’t ask for forgiveness for the US’s role in perpetuating the refugee crisis in Palestine. But he did present a simple way forward through fundamental respect and engagement.
If there was anyone out there who doubted if peace was better than war, George W. Bush did his best to give you his answer.
If there is anyone on earth who still hopes to live in peace, thank you for your patience. We’re de-Cheneyifying ourselves as fast as we can.
I didn’t believe in miracles — then I saw this parked a few blocks from my house.
From the people who brought you blatant Holocaust denial
I Don’t Know How To Share Me With You
She loved teeth. Read more »
When I Was a Child, I Did Exactly One Cute Thing
When I was a child, I did exactly one cute thing. Read more »
Drawing for Thanksgiving
What People Are Saying About the Stories on Dosmasks
I wish I could hate you to death.
Wow, you’re a bitch.
If you’re not gay, you’re a brilliant writer. If you are, (and this is semi-autobiographical) you’re still a brilliant writer but you’re also a horrible person.
If this isn’t fiction, then you are fucking sick.
If this is non-fiction…God have mercy on the writer’s soul.
You are a coward.
I guess we can all see why the cat left.
The Conservatives’ Undying Belief in Their Right to Rule
Remember school elections. Remember the kids who ran and won. There was the rare charismatic kid who stepped up, won and then wondered why she ever wasted her time. Who wants to be in charge of bullshit?
Mostly it was the kids who cared too much. The kids who got a kick out of the tiny bit of power, the ability to sway how the world functioned. And they cared more about winning than you ever could.
The leaders of the Conservative movement are those kids. They care way more than you could. They care so much about personal freedom that they’ll fight to keep you from having the right to choose. Smaller government is so important to them that they’ll hire companies from military industrial complex to support the military and not call it corporate welfare. They’re so sure of their Free Market philosophy that they’ll keep science they find immoral out of the marketplace of ideas.
Basically, they believe in nothing, except their right to run things.
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