The Offline Report

Hipster vinyl store s are selling more cassette tapes, and Target stores now sell players. The Independent Bookseller Association said sales were up nine percent over last year  by one measurement. And paper ballots are back at the booth . These events pull a thread through four subjects to form a distinct arc of democratic history, and point to a question that can be met by the next innovation of bundled digital, mechanical and behavioral tech. The subjects: I) author Mark Kurlansky; II) Robert Short Jr. and WRDS 102.1FM; III) Tim Snyder's 'Variegated' lecture; and IV) the year 2006, begin to shape this untapped opportunity. I. Kurlansky's 'Technological Fallacy' Lewis Lapham asked author Mark Kurlansky on a podcast ( transcript and podcast link here ) why he began his latest book " Paper: Paging Through History " with a prologue to what he calls the " technological fallacy ": Kurlansky: That's because I kind of went through kind ...

Not all controlling personalities are manipulative. Some are unintentionally exploitative . But some are willfully deceptive, and engaging such a personality can be exasperating for people who don't have a name for what's happening. People unfamiliar with controlling personalities who scale to success mistake their deception for brilliance. (This is stage two.) The truth is, manipulation tactics are not brilliant, they've been around for millenia, and in total the tactics comprise a list of about eight. Many are cataloged in George K. Simon's book In Sheep's Clothing . Manipulators appear different and new because old tactics from a finite set are used in different combinations and permutations by new players in different settings -- sometimes brilliant settings -- through history. When tactics are seen for what they are, the brilliance of the setting stands or falls on its own merits. ----- "Exploiting the gray area" is a manipulation *pla...

Wednesday May 30, 2018 Depressing sight at Trump rally in Nashville: adorable young boy, probly about my son's age, pointing iPhone at me & other reporters & snapping pix while screaming "FAKE NEWS!" A child who will grow up believing a free & fair press is the enemy, a bad thing, to be mocked & hated — Julie Davis (@juliehdavis) May 30, 2018 Monday May 28, 2018 A classical math problem gets pulled into self-driving cars.    wired.com Satellite radio 10 years in - a business analysis.    billboard.com Invisible Asymptotes looks like something I've been trying to put my finger on.    eugenewei.com/blog/ "Some things you can only learn in person. Two days with no news and no devices has reminded me of this truth."    harpers.org "Tornadoes were touching down all over Iowa, but I wouldn't have guessed it from listening to satellite radio. Outside, boiling up on both sides of Interstate...

What a week, bookclub members. While authorities are separating migrant children from their parents in the U.S.A. then losing track of them, Congress deregulates banking just as we're bidding on houses in an over-heated market, and more, we won't postpone a book club meeting. We hold a vague sense that composting and gun violence and climate change are connected. We can't explain it. But grab a virtual plate - given the stress of the week, we're serving a comfort food favorite: veggie burgers and fries. Of course, I pulled this recipe from Bon Appetit yesterday afternoon, ingredient-shopped, then chopped and assembled the mix until 1:00AM. B.A. recipes seduce with a great photo, then pull you in with prep-cook step after step. But it's done - indulge! I. Review II. Composting (page 62) III. Wind Turbines (page 2) IV. Next Meeting I. Review (Invest in Tree Farms, We're Bullish on Paper) Last week we reviewed Household Recycling (page 158) and Conse...

Saturday May 26, 2018 Majorities in both parties say government not doing enough to protect environment.    pewinternet.org LinuxJournal editor Doc Searls thinks inside-out on privacy to get out of the whack-a-mole we're now in. Clothing is a form of privacy, and he compiled a "Frequently Unasked Questions" list on Europe's GDPR privacy framework.    linuxjournal.com "In a letter to the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Watchdog and the Center for Auto Safety argue that Tesla’s website and comments from CEO Elon Musk had led drivers to believe that cars operating under Autopilot are fully autonomous. Instead, they argue, Autopilot is closer to the lane-keeping technology found on many modern cars."    sfchronicle.com Thursday May 24, 2018 Marc Benioff at the opening of the new Salesforce tower told guests: "When you look up at this tower, I want you to know you're not alone."    buzzfeed.com "Sabika Sheikh ...

Newer tech and more channels of communication brings people together and grows distance between them. The transcript below shows one of many communication breakdowns in the deadly Northern California wildfires last fall. But first, a quote from one resident shows how news expectations have changed dramatically in the last decade. Jason Meek, who  lost his Santa Rosa home to the fires, told Reveal reporters : “Like, we get all these text messages from CNN and Washington Post, or, you know, all the media that’s telling us what’s going on, on a minute-by-minute basis, in the world. But here – my world was burning, and I heard nothing,” he said. “We deserved to know that there was a fire.” NPR's California Report partnered with Reveal News for an investigation of last fall's fires. They probed communiques between county operators, first responders, electric companies and residents. Reporters from NPR and Reveal culled hundreds of 9-1-1 recordings. A section of the   "My...

Ronn Owens, a centrist non-extremist "voice of reason" talk show host, is no bore . He keeps a conversation lively, facilitates listener calls, is informed, opinionated and can improvise as events demand (especially when *current events DJ* Chris Hernandez queued the bumper music.) Owens was once the only host to regularly beat Rush Limbaugh in regional listener ratings. And Owens' show -- for years stretching three hours, five days per week -- is down to 10 minutes on weekdays. Gun violence still rages on. American regions need to talk. To each other. Why an older technology like terrestrial radio? Turnaround time: podcasts have to be scheduled, recorded and distributed for days to reach listeners.  Satellite radio requires a subscription, and  NPR affiliates only offer one or two stations on the dial in any area. Facebook offers space for conversation, but it's one corporation, is a data hoarder, and requires we divert our eyes to a screen.  People are wou...

Inducing midlife experiences before you've spent your youth, could position you for a more fulfilling midlife stage that supplants old age and makes you a better person than your peers, which is what all humans want. Midlife Truths: 1. Brocolli 2. Valleys 3. Lanes 4. No 5. Teeth 6. Nothing 7. Ozone Layer 8. The Next Ozone Layer 9. Be Safe Take Risks 1. Broccoli: Cooked salted broccoli drizzled with olive oil is a daily necessity. People will complain your cooked vegetables smell. Let them complain. 2. Valleys: A first adult-era breakup will show you, and a small select group of friends who marry young will never know this: a successful midlife participant will complete crouching-tiger-hidden-dragon leaps over deep, plunging valleys of loneliness that scientific proof at the time will show conclusively to have no end. These valleys are intervals, alternating with mountains. 3. Lanes: in early adult life, your friends and you all drive in the same financial lane. ...

The cognitive shock of an approaching birthday marking the magic threshold age of 40 did a number on me and my confidence in my career. There, I said it. My abilities were stronger than ever. But the opaque awareness of age discrimination in my field -- illegal, yes, but prevalent nonetheless -- had me looking at other careers on evenings and weekends, instead of giving my job my all. Don't let this happen to you. Because we need to wage a campaign that alerts the partners at Kleiner Perkins , the editors selecting New York Times OpEds, even 61-year-old NatGeo reporter Katie Couric, from saying, often on the record, the blatantly discriminatory things they said within the last two years. "I'm looking at your resume - you worked somewhere in 1998? How OLD are you?" That's what one employer who was then only seven years my junior, but below the magic 40 threshold, said to me in a phone interview for a job in 2016. Let's get to a place where...

Wednesday May 23, 2018 Workers are requesting stronger job protections against automation. washingtonpost.com A key feature of a California state senate bill SB 1121 "is to clarify that 'consumers,' not just 'customers,' are covered by state data-breach protections. This is significant. It vastly expands the scope of a company's responsibility to the public."    latimes.com "Billions Lost" author and tech industry veteran Hillarie T. Gamm advocates we add a cabinet position at the federal level. We have Secretary of State, Justice, Defense, Agriculture, etc. and says we should add a Secretary of Technology. Should it be Secretary of Digital Technology?    billionslostbook/blog/ Students and mothers campaign on behalf of surveillance industry after a child was struck and killed by a motorist (what ever happened to speed bumps?)    brooklyneagle.com A "weekly data privacy rewind" report says new FTC commissioner wants stiffer pen...

The magic phase of life for aspiring software startup founders begins on their 26th birthday. And ends on their 27th. After posting statistics earlier this week showing a more youth-lopsided workforce in San Francisco than Los Angeles , and studying ageism breakthroughs in other industries, like the Hollywood writers who achieved greater age diversity after a lawsuit was filed in 2003 , very specific ages began to stand out: 26, 30, 35 and 40. It's worth asking how much our brains cling to these magic age numbers because of some cognitive fallacy. "A 26-year-old is who we should hire." "He's 34? We'll only get one good year out of him before he expires at 35." Anchor Bias is a term scientists use to describe that over-reliance on certain concrete traits to judge a person's potential, ScienceDaily.com says: Anchoring or focalism is a term used in psychology to describe the common human tendency to rely too heavily, or "anchor," on one tr...

There's no time right now to slow down, read, prepare food, invite people over and discuss two chapters from project DrawDown in hopes of correcting climate change. Since there's no time, we have to make time, and we're doing that right now. Join us! Grab a virtual plate - today's nosh is a salad made with re-hydrated seaweed, asame seaweed specifically, inspired by the sea-farming segment we saw last week on 60 Minutes . Correspondent Leslie Stahl reported seaweed farming is starting to take off, removing carbon dioxide from the ocean. And seaweed's in such high demand, sea farmers can't produce fast enough, and are recruiting entrepreneurs and ex-fishermen to set up ocean plots, plant water crops, and join the craze. We searched three grocers before finally purchasing dried asame seaweed online. Lots of climate change-related news items were published since we last met for a DrawDown discussion March 30 . One published story reported people are giving up...

Saturday May 19, 2018 Disturbing drop in women in computing field:    fortune.com Since then, the lawsuit claims, “…Plaintiff (Green) was not promoted, and no white or black employees on Plaintiff’s teams were ever promoted, progressed, or given salary increases.”    qz.com "The next generation, the Indians who were born here, is more Americanized and therefore more attuned to the principles of fairness and judging somebody on their merits, not on who they are related to or who are they friends with."    quora.com Friday May 18, 2018 Online real estate listing site Zillow is jumping in and flipping houses now.    geekwire.com Google's selfish ledger to pass behavior from one person to another.    theverge.com Email is the next great media platform.    fastcompany.com H1-B pay discovered to be almost half the prevailing wage in 2011.    computerworld.com "At this point,...