Retiring Guy's Digest

Pew Research Takes Another Look at Millennials

2010-01-07T15:20:00.003-06:00

Link to January 7 Pew Research report, "Millennials: They’re Younger -- But Their Preferences Aren't That Different".

Excerpt: As might be expected, members of the Millennial generation are enthusiastic about the technological and communication advances of the past decade. They are also highly accepting of societal changes such as the greater availability of green products and more racial and ethnic diversity. What may be less expected is that, in many cases, they are not much different from the age groups that precede them. And on at least one issue -- the advent of reality TV shows -- their views differ not at all from those of the oldest Americans.

A recent survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that most Americans, young and old, offer a gloomy assessment of the past decade. Still, not all of the changes Americans have experienced in recent years are seen in a negative light. In particular, innovations in cell phones, email and online shopping are seen as changes for the better by most Americans with positive views reaching well beyond the youngest Millennial generation. These kinds of change are viewed at least as favorably by Americans in their 30s and 40s as they are by those in their late-teens and 20s and, in many cases, it is only those 65 and older who have less enthusiastic views of these innovations.

I'll call them the it's-about-time-somebody-wised-up generation.

At 26%, Millennials are the least likely to say that "cable talk news shows" represent a change for the better. (As opposed to 40% of the 65+ generation.)

Oh, and it looks as though we'll be seeing lots more tattoos.

Take Your Pick: Jailing Teachers or Supporting School Libraries

2010-01-07T15:01:00.005-06:00

Source: Lucerne Elementary School Library website

Link to December 16 special letter to the Detroit News, "Libraries hold key to Detroit progress". (via LISNews)

Excerpt: Detroit is looking in all the wrong places to explain its low reading scores and is ignoring the most obvious ("Detroit parents want DPS teachers, officials jailed over low test scores," Dec. 13). Jailing teachers, new reading initiatives and volunteer tutors are not the answer. The answer is improved school libraries staffed by certified librarians.

Study after study has confirmed the common-sense idea that reading itself is the best way to develop reading ability: Children who read more do better on all tests of literacy, including the fourth grade National Assessment of Educational Progress reading test, the test Detroit children did so poorly on.

But to read, children need access to books. For children of low-income families, the only source is the school library. Research done by me, as well as Jeff McQuillan, has confirmed that access to books is strongly related to performance on the NAEP exam for fourth-graders, even when we control for the effects of poverty.

Letter written byStephen Krashen , Professor Emeritus, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Compact Discs Continue to Lose Their Shine

2010-01-07T14:40:00.006-06:00

Shrinking, shrinking, shrinking sales

Link to January 7 New York Times article, "Albums by Swift and Boyle Top 2009 Charts, as Sales Continue Plunge".

Excerpt: The music industry rounded out a difficult decade with a difficult year.

For the year that ended on Sunday, a total of 373.9 million albums were sold in the United States, according to data from Nielsen SoundScan. That is a 12.7 percent drop from 2008, and a 52 percent fall since 2000, as consumers have continued to turn from CDs to less profitable — and often illegal — forms of digital music.

As sales plunged in the 2000s, music retailers have also taken a severe hit. Since 2004 the HMV, Tower and Virgin chains have all closed their American stores, and Trans World Entertainment, which operates F.Y.E., one of the last remaining music chains, said on Wednesday that it would close 137 of its roughly 700 locations.

Top 5 best-selling artists of the 2000s

1. Eninem (32,200,000)

2. The Beatles (30,200,000; this is not a typo.)

3. Tim McGraw (24,800,000)

4. Toby Keith (<23,000,000)

5. Britney Spears (<23,000,000)

Texas Library Is Ongoing Target of Vandalism

2010-01-07T14:06:00.002-06:00

Link to December 21 report on KTRK-TV website, "Brazen vandals target public library". (via LISNews)

Excerpt: It's the worst in a string of vandalism incident at the library over the last 18 months. They've replaced the front glass doors four times in the last six months. There's been graffiti on the outside and in. Right out front, workers say they routinely find broken beer bottles and used condoms.

No one has been able to say for sure who is responsible and if any of the incidents are connected, but they also note that there is an intermediate school just a block away. Students do congregate at the library.

Cleaning up costs money. Replacing the 50 or so books costs money. In this economy folks agree, that's what really hurts.

"It detracts from what we could be doing otherwise," Loranc said.

There are no surveillance cameras at the library. The city council voted just last week to approve funding for cameras.

Gadgeteers Alert! boingboing Reports on the International Consumer Electronics Show

2010-01-07T13:31:00.004-06:00

2010 International CES

Link to January 7 boingboing post, "CES in brief: Tablet galore".

Wisconsin State Journal Headline Writer Shows Appalling Ignorance

2010-01-07T07:25:00.003-06:00

Even kids know better.

And, miracle of miracles, Michelle Bachman might be getting the message.

Joe Arpaio: Right Hand Doesn't Know What Left Hand is Doing

2010-01-06T21:21:00.005-06:00

Link to January 4 The Wonk Room post, "Arpaio Admits To Not Reading His Own Book, Blames 'Reconquista' References on Co-Author."

The Web as America's Playground

2010-01-06T19:48:00.004-06:00

Here's some online content for your consumption.

Link to January 6 cnet news post, "Nielsen: Broadband use up, users more social".

Excerpt: The Web has quickly become America's playground. A new study from Nielsen finds that more U.S. Web users are using broadband, going social, and checking out Web videos.

According to Nielsen, of the 195 million active Web users in the U.S, 160.3 million, or 93.3 percent, access the Web with a broadband connection, representing a 16 percent increase over 2008 figures.

Nielsen also found that more Americans than ever are consuming online video content. The research firm said 138.4 million unique viewers watched online video in 2009, up 11.4 percent from 2008. All told, they average 11.2 billion video streams per month. The typical U.S.-based Web viewer watches 200.1 minutes of video per month.

Netflix Deals with Warner Brothers

2010-01-06T19:27:00.004-06:00

Link to January 6 Mashable post, "28 Days Later: Say Goodbye to the Netflix New Release Rental".

Excerpt: Today is sad day for Netflix customers. The online video rental supplier has just announced an agreement with Warner Bros. that will forever alter your online rental experience. Now should you wish to rent a Warner Bros. flick you’ll have to wait out a 28-day holding period after the film’s initial DVD release date.

Of course the partnership rooted in money-making greed — Warner Bros. wants you to buy the DVD instead of rent it —was to be expected. But the new deal is a first of its kind, and we could soon see several other studios follow in Warner Bros. footsteps.

Some might say, "Call the wambulance!'

As for Retiring Guy, it's no big deal. He prefers his movie experience where it belongs. In a theater.

And this is his kind of double-bill.

We Like Them, We Really Like Them!!

2010-01-06T18:59:00.006-06:00

Or so manufacturers of e-reader devices believe.

Link to January 6 Publishers Weekly article, "Digital Reading Takes Over the Consumer Electronics Show".

Excerpt: The Consumer Electronics Show opens tomorrow in Las Vegas and we can expect to see a veritable explosion of e-reading devices in every shape and format. Indeed, the CES Web site lists an eBook TechZone that features about 23 different manufacturers and it looks as though every major e-reader device producer –from IREX, Sony and Plastic Logic to Bookeen and Ditto—and many we’ve never heard of, will be on hand to show off a range of previously unveiled, new or upgraded devices. Baker & Taylor will use CES to provide more details on Blio.

American Libraries New Look

2010-01-06T18:52:00.003-06:00

See the full picture.

2010 Book Preview

2010-01-06T16:53:00.003-06:00

1/18 pub. date
Just placed a LINKcat hold (#17)

Link to January 5 The Millions post, "Most Anticipated: The Great 2010 Book Preview". (via Marginal Revolution)

Excerpt: There’s something for every lover of fiction coming in 2010, but, oddly enough, the dominant theme may be posthumous publication.

Ferris wrote And Then We Came to an End, one of my favorite reads in 2007.

Survey says.....we love our TVs

2010-01-06T14:36:00.003-06:00

Link to January 6 cnet news post, "Nielsen: You sure have a lot of TVs".

Here's the latest research from Nielsen. (November 2009)

Where the sets are:

29.9% of TV-owning households have 4 or more sets.

25.1% have 3 sets.

28.3% have 2 sets.

16.7% have 1 set.

(The percentage of households without a TV set is about 1.5%.)

Change from 2007 to 2009.

-10%. Number of VCRs in American homes.

+1%. Number of DVD players in American homes.

+12%. Number of DVRs in American homes.

Tablets: Here They Come to Save the Day

2010-01-06T14:26:00.003-06:00

....for magazine publishers.

A skeptic, Jeff Bercovici, begs to differ.

Link to January 5 The New York Observer post, "Tablets from Above".

Excerpt: If you ever hear about a company whose new technology is going to save magazines from extinction … short it. You’ll make a killing.

Step back in time. The old list of possible solutions to the magazine industry’s existential crisis is a long one: a perfect electronic replica of ink-and-paper editions, in PDF format; Web sites loaded with social networking features and user-generated content; mobile phone editions; flexible e-paper; print-on-demand copies and on and on it goes.

Cumulative net difference made by all of the above to the survival prospects of magazines: zero.

But now there’s a new savior on the horizon, and, hoo boy, this one is really going to change everything. The deus ex machina du jour involves notepad-size wireless computers with full-color, touch-screen displays. Publishers are tripping over themselves in their haste to be ready when the first of these devices hits the market later this year.

Read like.....patrons at the Half Hollow Hills Community Library

2010-01-06T11:09:00.004-06:00

PAFA.NET via Lazyfeed.

From library's website.

Link to "Read Like Larry" blogpost.

Or read like Retiring Guy is currently reading.

Katherine Paterson, Ambassador

2010-01-05T21:01:00.003-06:00

Link to January 5 New York Times article, "New Envoy’s Old Advice for Children: Read More".

Excerpt: Ms. Paterson, who is perhaps best known for the novel “Bridge to Terabithia,” said it was reading that informed her future writing self. As the daughter of missionary parents in China, she read her way through her parents’ library of children’s classics by A. A. Milne, Beatrix Potter, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, Kenneth Grahame and Frances Hodgson Burnett. “That is where the friends were,” she said, evoking her lonely childhood.

Now, as ambassador — a joint appointment by the Library of Congress’s Center for the Book and Every Child a Reader, a nonprofit group affiliated with the Children’s Book Council, a trade association for children’s book publishers — Ms. Paterson hopes to share the unfettered pleasure that reading can deliver.

Kirkus Continues Publishing

2010-01-05T16:41:00.003-06:00

Link to January 5 Daily Finance article, "Book Magazine Kirkus Reviews Lives to Write Another Day". (via EarlyWord)

Excerpt: Late last year, Nielsen Business Media announced it would shut down two venerable trade magazines: newspaper industry-centric Editor & Publisher and book industry publication Kirkus Reviews. Just a few days into 2010, the news for both magazines is much more positive. The staffers of E&P have launched an exile blog while awaiting a possible sale, and Kirkus Reviews will continue publication for the foreseeable future.

Cloud Computing Forecast: Wispy for Now

2010-01-05T12:57:00.005-06:00

Link to January 4 Computer World article, "Cloud computing still raises security, reliability concerns". (via US Telecom dailyLead)

Excerpt: Cloud service providers will need to address several IT management concerns -- including security, reliability and vendor lock-in -- before they can win more early adopters, according to Frank Gens, chief analyst at IDC.

In a late-2009 IDC survey of 263 IT and business executives, respondents cited the following concerns about cloud computing (in descending order): security, availability, performance, possibly higher costs, and a lack of interoperability standards.

Respondents said the benefits of cloud computing could include faster deployments, payments based on actual usage, and a need for fewer in-house staffers.

Skiff Reader: New Entry in eReader Sweepstakes

2010-01-04T20:57:00.002-06:00

Skiff Reader

Link to January 4 Mashable post, "CES: Hearst to Show Off the Skiff Reader".

Excerpt: If it seems like everybody and their second cousin is making an eReader device, it’s because they pretty much are. Beyond the industry-leading Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader, a veritable troupe of newcomers are taking the stage to challenge the digital reading device market: the Barnes & Noble Nook, Plastic Logic Que, Spring Design Alex, LG’s solar eReader and more will be vying for a share of the digital book market along with the now official Skiff Reader from Hearst.

In partnership with Sprint, who will supply 3G connectivity to the device, The Skiff Reader plans to come out swinging with a large 11.5-inch size and a high 1200 x 1600 pixel screen resolution. It will also be on the svelte side at just over a quarter-inch thick and just over a pound — the thinnest eReader on the market to date.

The Skiff Reader is also notable for using an entirely new technology to power its display. Unlike the glass screens that are the hall marks of the current generation of eReader devices, the Skiff uses a flexible display based on a thin sheet of stainless-steel foil. LG is the manufacturer behind the new screens, which help the Skiff stay slim and carry less risk of breakage.

King's College London research team says, "Weed this book".

2010-01-04T19:17:00.003-06:00

Link to January 4 BBC News article, "The G-spot 'doesn't appear to exist', say researchers".

Excerpt: The elusive erogenous zone said to exist in some women may be a myth, say researchers who have hunted for it.

Their study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine is the biggest yet, involving 1,800 women, and it found no proof.

The King's College London team believe the G-spot may be a figment of women's imagination, encouraged by magazines and sex therapists.

But sexologist Beverley Whipple who helped popularise the G-spot idea [and one of the authors of the above candidate for weeding] said the work was "flawed".

Hunted for it, huh? Does that ever bring to mind some comical imagery!

If this were 1970, or thereabouts, Woody Allen might have found his inspiration for a new movie.

Congratulations to Larry Nix, the Library History Buff

2010-01-04T18:05:00.004-06:00

What great news!

Larry's blog, "The Library History Buff", has been selected by Librarian and Information Science News as "10 Librarian Blogs To Read in 2010".

Excerpt: The Library History Buff: "Promoting the appreciation, enjoyment, and preservation of our library heritage" The Library History Buff Blog was one of only 2 blogs we could all agree on. Larry blogs about, well you can probably guess from the name, library history. It's fascinating to see how far we've come, and yet how little some things have changed.

The Top 5 Technology Panics of 2009

2010-01-04T11:13:00.003-06:00

Link to December 23 h+ article. (via Slashdot)

In countdown order:

5. Exploding iPods (THE REALITY: While lithium batteries have been known to do some unpleasant things, these incidents are, on the whole, incredibly rare.)

4. Robots attack. (THE REALITY: Factory work is dangerous and it always has been, ever since the Industrial Revolution began two hundred years ago. Indeed, most workplaces have actually gotten much safer over the years.)

3. "Sexting". (THE REALITY: The vast majority of these “child pornographers” are... the teenagers themselves. Most of the photos are of themselves, their boyfriends, or their girlfriends. And the recipients of the photos are almost always the other children at school.)

2. Bombing the moon. (THE REALITY: NASA‘s “missile” isn‘t a bomb, an explosive, a nuke, or indeed anything special at all — it‘s just an old, burnt-out rocket stage without any fuel left.)

1. Flesh eating robots. (THE REALITY: After the rumors started making their way around the Internet, EATR‘s designers stepped in to clarify: the “flesh-eating robot” will consume vegetable matter only, and it comes equipped with a suite of sensors and computers to help it determine whether the things it comes across are animal, vegetable or neither.)

Reference Materials: Used and Abused in Any Format

2010-01-04T10:54:00.005-06:00

see more Funny Graphs

"Grizzly" cuts to the chase and offers the most insightful comment.

I recall that teachers didn’t quite like encyclopedias either when I was in school. Like encyclopedias though Wikipedia provides a high level background to a topic and may point the way to primary sources for further research. Basing a paper on Wikipedia is like basing a paper on an encyclopedia entry, only with the encyclopedia you got (perhaps) a more error-free ride.

The Baby-sitters' Club Redux

2010-01-04T10:48:00.003-06:00

Link to December 31 New York Times article, "Comeback Planned for Girls’ Book Series".

Excerpt: Taking a page from Broadway and George Lucas, Scholastic Inc., the children’s book publisher, is trying for a revival — with a prequel attached.

In April the company plans to reissue repackaged and slightly revised versions of the first two volumes in one of its most successful series, “The Baby-Sitters Club,” in the hopes of igniting enthusiasm in a new generation of readers. And just as Mr. Lucas brought “Star Wars” back with a whole new arc of stories that began before the original series, Scholastic is publishing a newly written prequel, “The Summer Before,” by Ann M. Martin, the original author of “The Baby-Sitters Club” books.

It's 2010. Have you advocated for your library yet?

2010-01-04T06:50:00.003-06:00

Bill Berry has! (And the Wisconsin Library Association and Wisconsin Education Media & Technology Association thank him for helping to set the stage for this year's Library Legislative Day.]

Link to Berry's January 4 column in the Capital Times, "Keep the library lights burning".

Excerpt: In these tough times, it comes down to defining essential services. By almost any measure, and especially in the current economy, libraries are essential to many people. Folks need to tell that to officials who are making budget decisions.

The wave of budget cuts hasn’t hit Wisconsin communities as hard as those in other states, but several local libraries have cut bookmobile and branch services. On the other hand, Madison residents will soon benefit from a much-needed, $37 million new central library.

But library advocacy groups predict more cuts across the country. Privatization is being pushed as another alternative.

Wisconsin communities fund libraries in a variety of ways, including property taxes, some state revenues and support from patrons, foundations and other groups. In central Wisconsin, the Mead-Witter Foundation [WLA Citation of Merit] has been a big supporter, providing much-needed grants to community libraries. Construction of the central library here in Portage County was funded by tax dollars and a major capital campaign that asked local residents and businesses to chip with donations. They did.

It pays off, too. A 2008 research study commissioned by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction on the contribution of Wisconsin public libraries to the state economy found that tax dollars invested in Wisconsin public libraries produced a return on investment of $4.06 of library services for each $1 of taxpayer investment, including both direct economic contributions and the total market value of library services.