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One of the things I truly love about these stores is that they are so niche and the staff really knows there stuff. It reminds me of small, independent book stores of old. Today, the small bookstore is all but gone, replaced by the megastores. These stores are huge and cater to the masses. The staff is friendly enough but you’re really not going to be able to get down into an in depth conversation about a particular kind of book and what they recommend. No fault on them, it’s the nature of the beast. But comic book stores are small and dedicated to a particular crowd and the staff really knows their comics which they are happy to talk about. At the same time, I found no snobbery or ill will toward newcomers. There is a passion and excitement at these stores and that breads sales.

Comic stores are also unique in that they specialize in a product that has not yet been duplicated digitally. With all the fancy eBook readers and web tablets, no one has produced a device that can replicate a full color comic in all it’s glory. This puts them in a better position than the rest of the publishing industry which is daily being eaten alive by digital technology.

Despite what Comcast says, I don’t like this deal, not a bit. Here is the key point:

“NBC has been careful not to put too much cable content on the Internet. We think that’s a smart strategy…

It’s simple logic. Comcast, under their current business model, has little to gain from pushing Internet TV forward. They will do enough to prevent people from freaking out but they will hold things at bay. I think a distributor like Comcast owning the content is a conflict of interest and not at all consumer friendly. This is good for nobody but Comcast.

Posted via web from David Jacobs’s Connected World

Did you see it? O’Reilly dubbed us Patriots on The Factor last night for our new commercial!: http://bit.ly/4KW3xs

I have been a long time Dish Network subscriber and I was peeved when I saw this and watched the video. Fox’s Bill O’Reilly has been popping off about the supposed “war on Christmas” for the past several years. His argument is that too many people are using the word Holidays instead of Christmas thus degrading the traditionally Christian holiday. Personally I think this artificial controversy is ridiculous. There is no “war” on Christmas and if anything has been lost of the religious basis of the season, it was lost a long time ago mostly to over consumerism and not because of any deliberate effort.

Dish Network has the right to make any kind of commercial it wants and I’m not bothered in the least that they say Merry Christmas in the spot. But Bill O’Reilly holding them up as some kind of heroes and worse than that, Dish Network glomming onto that is what pisses me off. As I said, I’m a long time Disk Network customer and I also happen to be Jewish. While I don’t mind the spot itself, Dish Network had better watch where they step and who they choose to affiliate with. I’m sure Dish has many customers who are not Christian and I feel like they just slapped them all in the face.

• Cable News: I’ve gone into this on the podcast. There is no more news left in the news. It’s all opinion and people yelling at each other. The focus is on the most sensational stories and there is no intelligent analysis. Fox News is especially hilarious when they say “we report, you decide” just before they tell you what to think. I think there is something here related to the rise in citizen journalism and social media. Fortunately, some people can still see through this sham and are seeking out news in other places. When the traditional can no longer inform us, we must inform each other.

• Viagra Commercials: Crass and embarrassing is the only way to describe the infamous “smiling bob” commercials. None of the other commercials have any subtlety or tact either. This is the spam of commercial television.

• Cougar Conventions: Oh, yes, it’s true, the first annual Cougar Convention will be held in Las Vegas next year. I’m sure one of the goals of the convention is to put a more positive light on the whole Cougar phenomenon but I’m not sure a convention in Las Vegas will be enough to remove the smarmy tarnish of the whole Cougar thing. Just think, if this was older men going after younger women people would be outraged. It’s not my business what older women want to do and I don’t care, but the glamorization of it all bothers me.

• Ashley Madison: This is a website that encourages and promotes dating other men while married. They provide a vehicle for infidelity. They have been hitting TV pretty hard lately with ads and it gives me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Have we really come this far? Is infidelity so ok that we can brazenly and openly promote it like this? Is marriage so devalued? Again, not my business what goes on in anyones marriage but neither should be it Ashley Madisons either. And one final sick point, they are profiting off all this.

It’s not just about less fat and less carb when loosing weight and getting fit. It’s also about portion control. That happens to be one of my biggest challenges so I know all about it. A footlong sandwich is just too much food for one person to eat at a single meal. Now maybe you’re splitting it with someone else or maybe you’re eating half for lunch and half tomorrow. If so, good for you. But Subway certainly doesn’t advertise it that way. Overeating and increased weight are real problems in this country and five dollar footlongs aren’t helping.

Thus is the politics of control. In a hot presidential race, one statement, one moment can change fortunes forever. Just ask Howard Dean. The Clintons have always sought to protect and shield Chelsea from the press and I understand and empathize with that but if you don’t want to get shot, don’t go near the battlefield. If they are going to bring Chelsea along and make her part of the campaign in that way, than she is in the game, like it or not.

I don’t like the overly controlled and manufactured politics we have today. It’s almost impossible to get any kind of real read on a candidate. I’d love to hear from Chelsea and I’m sure other young people would too. She’s a smart girl for goodness sakes, let her speak. People are so afraid of making a mistake and the press is too quick to judge.

I has been said this is the YouTube campaign, but don’t let that fool you into thinking this is a new media campaign. We have had some “YouTube debates” but that’s just window dressing on a campaign that is still controlled by and manufactured for the old dog media. If anything, new media has intensified the control because of the way bad news can spread like wildfire across the Internet. We will not have a new media election until candidates are allowed and are courageous enough to let down their hair and let us see their real selves. Until control is broken down. Not until blogs, audio and video podcasts are treated as equals in the process and not a side show like the YouTube debates were. We’re getting closer every year and I hope someday we are able to break through and have a true new media election.

It took an elderly man wearing only a fanny pack and wandering through the center of town last week for the Select Board to decide it had seen enough.

Couldn’t they just say, you can’t be nude if you’re over the age of 60?

First things first.  I Feel for Mrs. Sheehan. She lost her son in a crappy war that Bush has royally screwed up.  Liberals are desparate to impeach someone mostly because they’re still pissed about what happend to Bill Clinton and want revenge. Bush is an idiot and has messed up most of his second term, but he hasn’t done anything that would warrant impeachment. Further, impeaching Bush isn’t going to take him out of office nor change his mind about the war. It will not bring home any troops any faster. It’ s an impractical lashing out by a frustrated group of people. I would rather congress spend it’s time figuring out how they can change of course of the war in a practical and sane way. It’s just not as easy as some people think.

Shehan has no chance to overtake Pelosi. Pelosi has the support of the party, she has experience, and for better or for worse, she hasn’t completely screwed anything up yet. Putting a wild eyed maverick with a single purpose in office is a very very bad idea.  San Fran voters are a bunch of nut jobs to be sure, but I don’t think they’re that foolish. Cindy Sheehan looks more like a crazy lunatic with her wild publicity stunts than a serious thoughtful person with something interesting and useful to say.