Big Trouble In China Subway

WEAR revealing clothes and you will be groped. This warning by a Shanghai MRT operator has caused a furore in the city.

On its microblogging site, the Shanghai No2 Subway Co posted a picture of a woman in a see-through dress and warned: "If you dress like this on the subway, you will undoubtedly be harassed. The subway is full of perverts - women, have some self-respect!"

-- LJ/News

But then where will we get our chikan videos?

This event in China has caused a lot of furor, with women protesting in Western 'slut walk' style that they can dress as they please without giving a license to men to sample the wares. I am a little amazed that these progressively feminist attitudes have made their way around the globe and into authoritarian China. May this be ascribed to the power of the Internet?

Big Trouble In China Subway

WEAR revealing clothes and you will be groped. This warning by a Shanghai MRT operator has caused a furore in the city.

On its microblogging site, the Shanghai No2 Subway Co posted a picture of a woman in a see-through dress and warned: "If you dress like this on the subway, you will undoubtedly be harassed. The subway is full of perverts - women, have some self-respect!"

-- LJ/News

But then where will we get our chikan videos?

This event in China has caused a lot of furor, with women protesting in Western 'slut walk' style that they can dress as they please without giving a license to men to sample the wares. I am a little amazed that these progressively feminist attitudes have made their way around the globe and into authoritarian China. May this be ascribed to the power of the Internet?

Book Notes

“As a reader—and I am more of a reader than a writer, we all are, I suppose—I can enjoy a good story, but in a novel, which takes time to read, a good story is not enough for me. If I close a book and there are no echoes, that is very frustrating. I like books that aren’t only witty or ingenious. I prefer something that leaves a resonance, an atmosphere behind. That is what happens to me when I read Shakespeare and Proust. There are certain illuminations or flashes of things that convey a completely different way of thinking. I’m using words that have to do with light because sometimes, as I believe Faulkner said, striking a match in the middle of the night in the middle of a field doesn’t permit you to see anything more clearly, but to see more clearly the darkness that surrounds you. Literature does that more than anything else. It doesn’t properly illuminate things, but like the match it lets you see how much darkness there is.”

-- Javier Marias at The Paris Review

Book Notes

“As a reader—and I am more of a reader than a writer, we all are, I suppose—I can enjoy a good story, but in a novel, which takes time to read, a good story is not enough for me. If I close a book and there are no echoes, that is very frustrating. I like books that aren’t only witty or ingenious. I prefer something that leaves a resonance, an atmosphere behind. That is what happens to me when I read Shakespeare and Proust. There are certain illuminations or flashes of things that convey a completely different way of thinking. I’m using words that have to do with light because sometimes, as I believe Faulkner said, striking a match in the middle of the night in the middle of a field doesn’t permit you to see anything more clearly, but to see more clearly the darkness that surrounds you. Literature does that more than anything else. It doesn’t properly illuminate things, but like the match it lets you see how much darkness there is.”

-- Javier Marias at The Paris Review

The Amazon Effect

Bezos decided selling books would be the best way to get big fast on the Internet. This was not immediately obvious: bookselling in the United States had always been less of a business than a calling. Profit margins were notoriously thin, and most independent stores depended on low rents. Walk-in traffic was often sporadic, the public’s taste fickle; reliance on a steady stream of bestsellers to keep the landlord at bay was not exactly a sure-fire strategy for remaining solvent.

-- Steve Wasserman, "The Amazon Effect" at The Nation

We are familiar with the way behemoths such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and, yes, Amazon have dominated the Web, but this is an account worth keeping. Maybe it is just my age, but I do think we have lost something with the near-extinction of book stores. Nevertheless, convenience and price are the king and queen of our capitalist souls. And it is nice not to have to wait around at bus stops to buy books.


_ _ _

For many of us, the notion that bricks-and-mortar bookstores might one day disappear was unthinkable. Jason Epstein put it best in Book Business, his incisive 2001 book on publishing’s past, present and future, when he offered what now looks to be, given his characteristic unsentimental sobriety, an atypical dollop of unwarranted optimism: “A civilization without retail bookstores is unimaginable. Like shrines and other sacred meeting places, bookstores are essential artifacts of human nature. The feel of a book taken from the shelf and held in the hand is a magical experience, linking writer to reader.”

That sentiment is likely to strike today’s younger readers as nostalgia bordering on fetish. Reality is elsewhere. Consider the millions who are buying those modern Aladdin’s lamps called e-readers. These magical devices, ever more beautiful and nimble in design, have only to be lightly rubbed for the genie of literature to be summoned. Appetite for these idols, especially among the young, is insatiable. For these readers, what counts is whether and how books will be made available to the greatest number of people at the cheapest possible price. Whether readers find books in bookstores or a digital device matters not at all; what matters is cost and ease of access. Walk into any Apple store (temples of the latest fad) and you’ll be engulfed by the near frenzy of folks from all walks of life who seemingly can’t wait to surrender their hard-earned dollars for the latest iPad, Apple’s tablet reader, no matter the constraints of a faltering economy. Then try to find a bookstore. Good luck. If you do, you’ll notice that fewer books are on offer, the aisles wider, customers scarce. Bookstores have lost their mojo.

[...]

Jeff Bezos got what he wanted: Amazon got big fast and is getting bigger, dwarfing all rivals. To fully appreciate the fear that is sucking the oxygen out of publishers’ suites, it is important to understand what a steamroller Amazon has become. Last year it had $48 billion in revenue, more than all six of the major American publishing conglomerates combined, with a cash reserve of $5 billion. The company is valued at nearly $100 billion and employs more than 65,000 workers (all nonunion); Bezos, according to Forbes, is the thirtieth wealthiest man in America. Amazon may be identified in the public mind with books, but the reality is that book sales account for a diminishing share of its overall business; the company is no longer principally a bookseller. Amazon is now an online Walmart, and while 50 percent of its revenues are derived from music, TV shows, movies and, yes, books, another 50 percent comes from a diverse array of products and services. In the late 1990s Bezos bought IMDb.com, the authoritative movie website. In 2009 he went gunning for bigger game, spending nearly $900 million to acquire Zappos.com, a shoe retailer. He also owns Diapers.com, a baby products website. Now he seeks to colonize high-end fashion as well. “Bezos may well be the premier technologist in America,” said Wired, “a figure who casts as big a shadow as legends like Bill Gates and the late Steve Jobs.”

-- Steve Wasserman, "The Amazon Effect" at The Nation

</lj-spoiler

The Amazon Effect

Bezos decided selling books would be the best way to get big fast on the Internet. This was not immediately obvious: bookselling in the United States had always been less of a business than a calling. Profit margins were notoriously thin, and most independent stores depended on low rents. Walk-in traffic was often sporadic, the public’s taste fickle; reliance on a steady stream of bestsellers to keep the landlord at bay was not exactly a sure-fire strategy for remaining solvent.

-- Steve Wasserman, "The Amazon Effect" at The Nation

We are familiar with the way behemoths such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and, yes, Amazon have dominated the Web, but this is an account worth keeping. Maybe it is just my age, but I do think we have lost something with the near-extinction of book stores. Nevertheless, convenience and price are the king and queen of our capitalist souls. And it is nice not to have to wait around at bus stops to buy books.


_ _ _

For many of us, the notion that bricks-and-mortar bookstores might one day disappear was unthinkable. Jason Epstein put it best in Book Business, his incisive 2001 book on publishing’s past, present and future, when he offered what now looks to be, given his characteristic unsentimental sobriety, an atypical dollop of unwarranted optimism: “A civilization without retail bookstores is unimaginable. Like shrines and other sacred meeting places, bookstores are essential artifacts of human nature. The feel of a book taken from the shelf and held in the hand is a magical experience, linking writer to reader.”

That sentiment is likely to strike today’s younger readers as nostalgia bordering on fetish. Reality is elsewhere. Consider the millions who are buying those modern Aladdin’s lamps called e-readers. These magical devices, ever more beautiful and nimble in design, have only to be lightly rubbed for the genie of literature to be summoned. Appetite for these idols, especially among the young, is insatiable. For these readers, what counts is whether and how books will be made available to the greatest number of people at the cheapest possible price. Whether readers find books in bookstores or a digital device matters not at all; what matters is cost and ease of access. Walk into any Apple store (temples of the latest fad) and you’ll be engulfed by the near frenzy of folks from all walks of life who seemingly can’t wait to surrender their hard-earned dollars for the latest iPad, Apple’s tablet reader, no matter the constraints of a faltering economy. Then try to find a bookstore. Good luck. If you do, you’ll notice that fewer books are on offer, the aisles wider, customers scarce. Bookstores have lost their mojo.

[...]

Jeff Bezos got what he wanted: Amazon got big fast and is getting bigger, dwarfing all rivals. To fully appreciate the fear that is sucking the oxygen out of publishers’ suites, it is important to understand what a steamroller Amazon has become. Last year it had $48 billion in revenue, more than all six of the major American publishing conglomerates combined, with a cash reserve of $5 billion. The company is valued at nearly $100 billion and employs more than 65,000 workers (all nonunion); Bezos, according to Forbes, is the thirtieth wealthiest man in America. Amazon may be identified in the public mind with books, but the reality is that book sales account for a diminishing share of its overall business; the company is no longer principally a bookseller. Amazon is now an online Walmart, and while 50 percent of its revenues are derived from music, TV shows, movies and, yes, books, another 50 percent comes from a diverse array of products and services. In the late 1990s Bezos bought IMDb.com, the authoritative movie website. In 2009 he went gunning for bigger game, spending nearly $900 million to acquire Zappos.com, a shoe retailer. He also owns Diapers.com, a baby products website. Now he seeks to colonize high-end fashion as well. “Bezos may well be the premier technologist in America,” said Wired, “a figure who casts as big a shadow as legends like Bill Gates and the late Steve Jobs.”

-- Steve Wasserman, "The Amazon Effect" at The Nation

</lj-spoiler

Atlas Shrugged (1,4) The San Sebastian Line

Dagny is in James Taggart’s office. Brother and sister are together fighting it out over the running of the railroad. He is the president, but she is the Vice-President in Charge of Operations. He may have the edge in formal positional power, but she has the balls.

She is determined to fix the Rio Norte Line and do business with the oil tycoon Ellis Wyatt, and to do that, she is more than willing to do business with Hank Rearden in order to get that track fixed. More than that, she is going to use Rearden’s experimental metal, even though no one else will give it a try. Jim is in a fury, but she says, “Jim, I studied engineering in college. When I see things, I see them.” And Rearden has showed her his test results.

Moreover, we learn that Jim has made a foolish business decision to set up the San Sebastian Line in Mexico. Dagny knows that the Line is going to be nationalized by the Mexicans, and we will catch this part of their vigorous discussion, and see a good display of the Randian philosophy in action, the clarity and power of self-interest.


_ _ _

“I refuse to consider, I absolutely refuse to consider the possibility of the San Sebastian Line being nationalized!”

“All right. Don’t consider it.”

She remained silent. He said defensively, “I don’t see why you’re so eager to give a chance to Ellis Wyatt, yet you think it’s wrong to take part in developing an underprivileged country that never had a chance.”

“Ellis Wyatt is not asking anybody to give him a chance. And I’m not in business to give chances. I’m running a railroad.”

“That’s an extremely narrow view, it seems to me. I don’t see why we should want to help one man instead of a whole nation.”

“I’m not interested in helping anybody. I want to make money.”

“That’s an impractical attitude. Selfish greed for profit is a thing of the past. It has been generally conceded that the interests of society as a whole must always be placed first in any business undertaking...”

-- “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand

Atlas Shrugged (1,4) The San Sebastian Line

Dagny is in James Taggart’s office. Brother and sister are together fighting it out over the running of the railroad. He is the president, but she is the Vice-President in Charge of Operations. He may have the edge in formal positional power, but she has the balls.

She is determined to fix the Rio Norte Line and do business with the oil tycoon Ellis Wyatt, and to do that, she is more than willing to do business with Hank Rearden in order to get that track fixed. More than that, she is going to use Rearden’s experimental metal, even though no one else will give it a try. Jim is in a fury, but she says, “Jim, I studied engineering in college. When I see things, I see them.” And Rearden has showed her his test results.

Moreover, we learn that Jim has made a foolish business decision to set up the San Sebastian Line in Mexico. Dagny knows that the Line is going to be nationalized by the Mexicans, and we will catch this part of their vigorous discussion, and see a good display of the Randian philosophy in action, the clarity and power of self-interest.


_ _ _

“I refuse to consider, I absolutely refuse to consider the possibility of the San Sebastian Line being nationalized!”

“All right. Don’t consider it.”

She remained silent. He said defensively, “I don’t see why you’re so eager to give a chance to Ellis Wyatt, yet you think it’s wrong to take part in developing an underprivileged country that never had a chance.”

“Ellis Wyatt is not asking anybody to give him a chance. And I’m not in business to give chances. I’m running a railroad.”

“That’s an extremely narrow view, it seems to me. I don’t see why we should want to help one man instead of a whole nation.”

“I’m not interested in helping anybody. I want to make money.”

“That’s an impractical attitude. Selfish greed for profit is a thing of the past. It has been generally conceded that the interests of society as a whole must always be placed first in any business undertaking...”

-- “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand