Bookraft

A recurring problem since its invention is that Money does indeed talk. The Supreme Court of the United States just accorded to Money the full Rights of Free Speech. Yet Congressional leaders are constantly saying they are mute to the "talk" of lobbyist's Money and other enticements. Even Niall Ferguson in his Ascent of Money put coin behind property in his assessment of the relative fall of British aristocracy in the nineteenth century. In general, there is an insistence among the highly Moneyed, that Money does not talk ... or at least not nearly effectively as they would expect and/or like.

All the NYTimes All-the-News-Fit-To-Print motto has recently had a test of how loudly Money talks. Here is what Slate has to say about the Issue:

A little more than a year ago, when the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim increased his stake in the New York Times Company (NYT), I wrote "I pity the Times Mexico bureau chief who has to tiptoe through who is and isn't out of favor with the paper's new sugar daddy." Now we have a very clear example of how the Times treats Slim within its pages; it's not pretty, and the journalistic compromise can be seen well beyond Mexico.

For the last several days, bloggers and many business news outlets have been revealing truly astounding details from a court case involving J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM) and two large Mexican telecom companies, one of which is Slim's. Blogger Felix Salmon at Reuters was one of the earliest to cover this at length; his summary of the case gets right to the heart of it.

Now a just concluded search of the NYTimes website only produced the series of links/mentions of the story in the NYTimes seen in the screenshot to the left taken from Feb 25, 2010 TimeTopics section of the NYTimes online edition. It was found in the Time Topics section detailing the background of Carlos Slim Helu, his enormous wealth and his investments in the NYTimes - 6.9% of the common stock and $250 million in debt.

However search of the Internet found a number of blogs covering the story - including Slate which is used above for the quote and Clusterstock among others. The commentary about the susceptibility of the NYTimes caving to the influence of the Money behind it is only matched by the yet another scandalous proof that Wall Street considers Fiduciary Trust for Clients unenforceable contractual nonsense to be safely ignored. Meanwhile, and in contrast, Money talks and in no uncertain terms.

Finally, on a broader scale - given the fiancial plight of many newsmedia, and the frightful state of TV news coverage [think anything but "Fair and balanced" Fox News for starters]; one has to consider that if the NYTimes is vulnerable to Money Talk - what about the even less endowed Press in general. Yes, the Web Blogs do provide an outlet- but say Slate or Huffington Post do not have the familiarity and or prestige of outlets like the Christian Scince Monitor, Newsweek, LATimes, or Business Week - all of which have various readership stresses and therefore funding problems. In an era demanding good decisions to be made, are all options going to be explored or is the Money going to shape all the conversations?

Have you ever wondered what would happen if a Bizzarro cartoon were turned into a story setting? Well then you would have Anhk-Morpork of Discworld as sketched in book 9 of some of the finest comic crafting of the past two decades by Terry Pratchett. This is a return to the Night Watch and its growing cast of Keystone Kopper Konstabulary kharacters. Pratchett has added to anti-hero extraordinaire Captain Vimes some new recruits including Detruitus the slow thinking Troll, Angua the sexy moll-cop with a wolfish history, and Cuddy the Dwarf whose size is no barrier to his brass.

Of course misbegotten crime is unleashed on the Night Watch hatched by a plutocratic monarchist who oxymorons his way through one bizarrely massive murder after another. So this gives Pratchett the opportunity to display the Night Watch's died in the wool sankfreud as it stumbles on toward the resolution of major philosophical questions disguised as running jokester crimes. The satire is tart but delicious, the anti-heroes heroically droll and fair-minded to a fault, and the action always suggesting Fire, Ready, Aim.

But in fact the plotline is as ironically taut as the rich and ribald spoonerisms and portmanteaus running rampant in the language. If you like to giggle or laugh out loud or smile silent and knowingly, this is the best comic concoction to be found on a real Terra Gone Terribly Meltdownish Wrong. As Captain Vimes would say "I suppose you could conclude the book is quite good".

PS: The reading by Tony Robinson is nothing short of a virtuoso performance and a magnificent tickle.

Hmmm, a historical novel by Ken Follet, master of modern suspense novels and sketcher of amazing character portraits. The setting is surprising for Follett, 12th century England and the pre-Renaissance building of massive and imposing cathedrals throughout Europe - one of the catalysts along with the Crusades for Europe's embarking on rediscovering and reinvigorating itself by means of its origins. And such a cast of characters! Each is launched into the story with unforgettable drama - the "witch" Ellen cursing publicly with damning epithets a prior, a prelate, a sheriff - all together at the hanging of her lover; the Welsh monk Prior Phillip surviving in his youth by dint of a harrowing voice of another from sure slaughter at the hands of an English raiding party consumed with blood lust and propelled by wanton looting; Tom the Builder demanding from William Hamleigh, son of the Earl, a final payment to his workers for a discontinued country house.

On and on, the first two hundred pages of a thousand page book introduce one memorable character sketch after another in the England of post-William the Conqueror. Life and government is subject to the whims and fancies of rival Lords and Barons. The English monarchy constantly teeters from one faction to another as Civil Wars are endemic - and the Church is one of the few [and unsteady] refuges for the population. One sees first hand, the dangers of a plutocracy.

With this compelling setting and cast of characters including portraits of historical figures such as King Stephen, sometime Queen Maud, Archbishop Henry, and a host of ravenously aspiring Earls, Counts and Barons - the making of the cathedral at KingsBridge [think of the actual cathedral at Salisbury as one of Follett's models]becomes the backdrop of the story and interaction among the characters.

And unfortunately, just like the first and second tries at building the Kingsbridge Cathedral, this wonderful beginning and amazing cast of characters and fascinating times falls down.

I met HeLa by way of Scientific American more than ten years ago. I was struck and fascinated by the nature of HeLa's survival - HeLa are the Cervical Cancer cells of Henrietta Lacks, a poor Negro woman treated at John Hopkins Hospital. That is all I knew at the time - but I remembered the sheer and stunning replicative ferocity of HeLa cells and what an effect they had on the story of cancer metastases - how it spread so virulently. And then I met the immortal HeLa again in the New York Times book reviews . After reading the review I know I will want to meet HeLa - Henrietta Lacks again.

Apple's entry into the eReader business has already had some repercussions. Amazon is resisting calls from publishers to raise Kindle prices from $9.99 to $14.99 - the Apple iBook Store price on the iPad for its equivalent books. The NYTimes reports [and now confirmed with more details at Slashgear] that all MacMillan books have been yanked from Amazon website as the parties negotiate over fees. Amazon has to be careful because if big book publishers move to the Apple iPad exclusively that will diminish the value of the Kindle which is already under attack from many competitors and a clearly better iPad eReader.

Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 4g .... oops,  iPad today and it turns out to be a giant iPhone with 10inch color screen, Apple's own processor, no support for Flash nor for  multi-tasking, and a top price of $829. It supports WiFi, 3G, USB, and some Bluray connectivity. It will read directly and run iPhone apps but they run in half-size on the screen. Gamers were not impressed.

However three features stood out to this viewer. First, this is a Kindle Killer. Color, auto shift to horizontal or vertical reading, all the iPhone multi-touch/gesturing and the backing of major publishers in both books and news/magazines means not only Kindle but most most of the new  CES 2010 eReaders - R.I.P. Second, the battery lasts 10 hours when using the screen or Wifi constantly - upto quadruple  that otherwise.  3)The AT&T $30 unlimited download plan is a killer price - can AT&T network stand the additional load?

iPad is a robust media device - movies, TV, photos, and music machine even without Flash.

Biggest disappointments - no word on the OS, and no multi-tasking, not available for 2 months and counting plus connectivity is still hazy - only one USB port, no support for WiFi Direct yet - and most glaring still shuns Adobe Flash. How can you aspire to be a major media device and not support Flash player?
But give Steve Jobs credit - he is claiming to be the King Palm of mobile devices - and he has timed his entry into the eReader market with exquisitely. Color, 10-inch screen, very light and very fast performance. Can be docked and used with an Apple keyboard. The only question - can you take it outdoors and read it ??

For the past 6 months I have written several articles on how good the NYTimes is getting with its website design and features. They are:
+ Delivering Financial tools better than Google Finance.
+ Using more Web 2.0 finesse than any other major news media
+ Delivering on smartphones and mobile platforms faster than most news media
+ Using very savvy RIA technology for its 2nd try at digital delivery
- But also giving away the secret Readability sauce
So one would suspect that the NYTimes would take another try at charging for access to their website. And they have decided to do so. Here is where the NYTimes spells out the details. The key points so far are the Times will not start charging until January 2011. The charge rate has not been specified but you can currently get the NYTimes Reader for $180 for a year. Finally, like the Financial Times of London, the NYTimes will allow for free access to their website so many times a month - then upon exceeding that limit users will be prompted to pay. But crucially, if you follow a link to the NYTimes from another website, that read will always be free. Smart. But also the NYTimes also reserves the right to change its mind on all the details. I like the idea ... it gives solace to know the pendulum is swinging back against "everything for free on the Web".

Slate Prices out Potential Revenue from Fees

Slate Big Money blog prices out the NYTimes fee and arrives at a possible doubling of online revenues - problem - they don't know online revenues at the NYTimes. But if the Washington Post is a guide - that could be about $200-500M in additional revenues. Not chicken feed. See the report here

2009 marked the tipping point for eReaders as sales took a major up tick to over 3M units. And if CES Consumer Electronic Show 2010 is any guide the flood of new, robust and light eReaders means a lot more good news for book publishers and other media resource busineses. There were at CES 2010 a pan full of promising eReader nuggets. In fact, the missing announcement, the Apple iSlate, is now rumoring to be a color eReader that every book nook worth their typography and graphics design styling noses secretly lusts for. But the missing piece hardly does justice to the torrent of eReader goodies that appeared bright and shiny at CES2010.

Many visions of Sherlock Holmes have arisen since 1930 when Sherlock's creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died. One of the latest Sherlock incarnations can be seen on movie screens this Christmas starring Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock and Jude Law as Dr. Watson. And in 1999 there was an animated series of Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century produced by Disney and Scottish TV. This story's method for preserving Professor Moriarty and bringing him back to life should not be confused with the cryogenic method used by the 1987 Michael Pennington/Margaret Colin TV movie. As one can see Sherlock has had a mixed "afterlife".

All of these productions feature Sherlock entangled with his great foe, Professor Moriarty. And many of their plot sequences are more like action hero stories than the carefully nuanced murder mystery cases one might be familiar with from the original Conan Doyle Sherlock cases.

The original cases emphasized keen observation, relentless detective sleuthing and some clever undercover work. One immediately can think of such sleuthing gems as the Adventure of the Speckled Band or theCase of the Five Orange Pips. In some cases just figuring out what and how a crime was committed is the fascination. In contrast, the cu5rrent movie has an almost preposterous plot line with Blackwood/Moriarty planning to wipe out all the members of British Parliament in order to start a war against America - call it the Case of Incorrigible Incredulity.

Our previous story on how the NYTimes is leading the way for news media with its Web 2.0 innovations has an important follow up. New digital editions of newspapers that you download to your PC or mobile phone are emerging. And interestingly some of the inspiration is coming from France.

As previously noted, published news media like newspapers and magazines are suffering as subscribers desert them for free resources like Yahoo, MSN, CNN and even their own free web editions. Worse their revenues are further reduced by the popularity of Google ads and Craigslist and other digital media. News media have been pressed for the past decade to find a paying presence in the digital world for all their news craft and content.
WAN- World Association of Newspapers has consolidated and is organizing conferences on how classic news media can respond to the digital challenge. If one looks at the agenda for the upcoming March Conference, the topic is Where is the Money ? - underlining how serious the challenge is to stay economically viable for many news media.

Meanwhile the IFRA arm of WAN has been working on some savvy French digital paper designs: