"Over the years, journalists have innovated narrowly, focusing on how stories look rather than what journalism can do."
Reads
Reading list of books, magazines, newspaper articles, other physical documents, or online posts
👓 India’s Tighter E-Commerce Rules Frustrate Amazon and Walmart Plans | WSJ
Foreign companies will no longer be allowed to sell products from their own affiliated companies in India
NEW DELHI—India is tightening restrictions on foreign e-commerce companies operating in the country, a new challenge to Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc. as they bet billions on the nascent market.
Current rules forbid non-Indian online sellers from holding their own inventory and shipping it out to consumers, as is typically done in other countries. Instead, they have found a work-around by operating as online marketplaces and selling what are effectively their own products held by their affiliated local companies.
They will no longer be allowed to sell such goods, a division of India’s Commerce and Industry Ministry said in a statement Wednesday, an apparent attempt to close that loophole.
The new rules, which take effect Feb. 1, also bar foreign companies from entering into exclusive agreements with sellers. Amazon, for example, has in the past been the exclusive third-party online retailer to sell smartphones from the popular Chinese smartphone brand OnePlus.
Abneesh Roy, an analyst at Edelweiss Securities, noted that ahead of elections set for early next year, the government could be moving to appease owners of smaller shops that have been hit as customers buy more goods online.
“Shopkeepers have been unhappy,” he said. “In an election year, the government will definitely listen more to voters.” ❧
It’s nice to see foreign countries looking at what has happened to coutries like America with the rise of things like e-commerce, actually thinking about them and the longer term implications, and making rules to effect the potential outcomes.
Now the bigger follow up question is: is this a good thing? Perhaps there won’t be the community interruption we’ve seen in the US, but what do the overall effects look like decades hence? From a community perspective, from a competitive perspective?
December 27, 2018 at 12:26PM
👓 Usernames on Micro.blog | Manton Reece
Manton Reece (manton.org)Micro.blog now has 3 distinct styles of usernames to make the platform more compatible with other services: Micro.blog usernames, e.g. @you. These are simple usernames for @-mentioning someone else in the Micro.blog community. Mastodon usernames, e.g. @you@yourdomain.com. When you search Micro.blog ...
👓 A Reading Plan for 2019 | Rhoneisms
Last year, I publicized my reading plan for the year. Overall, I’m very happy with the number of books I managed to read (20) and the quality of what I read. There are some aspects of the plan I wish I’d been better at but that’s a small regret. I enjoyed almost everything I picked up with few...
I like the idea of a reading plan (or personal syllabus, if you will). I’m not sure I could be as rigid about letting new titles onto my list though.
I did a miserable job of reading the non-fiction on my list this year, but did a good bit of juvenile fiction that I enjoyed. I did however read a humongous amount of online content (articles, etc.) and managed to log nearly every bit of it.
👓 Book Notes: ‘Sapiens,’ by Yuval Noah Harari | Newley.com
Newley Purnell (newley.com)A deeply thought-provoking book about how homo sapiens came to dominate the world – and how our advancements have come at a significant cost.
I love big, sprawling books that tackle huge subjects and challenge you to change the way you conceive of the world.
This global bestseller, which has been all the rage among Silicon Valley technologists in recent years, in particular, is one of the best of that sort of title I’ve read.
If Newley likes this and Guns, Germs, and Steel, he’ll likely love David Christian’s Maps of Time.
Unlike typical book blogs, it looks like Newley is posting these types of reviews, quotes, and ideas in a way similar to how I set out my own online commonplace book.
👓 The 10 Best Books I Read in 2018 | Newley.com
Newley Purnell (newley.com)Here’s the best of what I read in 2018. As in previous round-ups, some of these titles came out this year, while others were published in years past.
👓 Slow tech | Chris Beckstrom
Chris Beckstrom (Chris Beckstrom)reply to https://colet.space/slow-tech-movement/ I really like this idea comparing our usage of giant corporate social networks like Facebook to consumption of factory-farmed meat and produce… Where the “slow food” movement replaces a bit of convenience for more ethical, local, and even tastier food, perhaps the “slow tech” movement could do the same for the technology in our daily lives; a personal website might look strange, have some bugs, and be a bit slow, but it doesn’t support giant corporations that are working to gain control over our interactions with the internet… and it puts control of personal data back into our own hands.
Yet another person talking about slow tech / slow social.
📺 “Modern Family” Kiss and Tell | ABC
Directed by Steven Levitan. With Ed O'Neill, Sofía Vergara, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell. Haley needs a little help deciding whether or not to tell Arvin about her kiss with Dylan and goes to Mitch and Cam for their advice. Meanwhile, Gloria suspects Manny's Canadian girlfriend is made up and wants to find out the real truth.
👓 Paradox of tolerance | Wikipedia
The paradox of tolerance is a paradox that states that if a society is tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually seized or destroyed by the intolerant. Karl Popper first described it in 1945—expressing the seemingly paradoxical idea that, "In order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance."
👓 Festive indieweb and selfhosting | voss.co
voss (Left handed typing since 2017)Holiday is on, and apart from relaxing with the family, I aim to look into a bunch of stuff before I'm back at the factory in January. My Indieweb life is coming on well, thanks to Known, and the #indieweb community in London. I attended my first couple of Homebrew Website Club meetups in town in 20...
👓 I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon. | The Atlantic
There’s a certain novelty, after decades at a legacy media company, in playing for the team that’s winning big.
👓 How Much of the Internet Is Fake? | NY Magazine | Intelligencer
Turns out, a lot of it, actually.
👓 How to Memorize the Largest Known Prime | Scientific American Blog Network
It may seem daunting to memorize a 24 million digit number, but with these tips, you'll be well on your way
👓 Albert Anastasia | Wikipedia
Albert Anastasia (born Umberto Anastasio, September 26, 1902 – October 25, 1957) was an Italian-American mobster, hitman and crime lord, and one of the most ruthless and feared organized crime figures in United States history. One of the founders of the modern American Mafia and the founder and boss of Murder, Inc., Anastasia was boss of what became the modern Gambino crime family. Anastasia is considered by the FBI to be one of the deadliest criminals of all time. According to former NYPD Detective Ralph Salerno, Anastasia murdered tens of thousands of people during his reign of terror, while former FBI Assistant Director James Kallstrom believes the number of people that Anastasia has killed is unquestionably in the thousands; however, the exact number is unknown.
Anastasia was unarguably the most dangerous and feared hitman of the Cosa Nostra's golden era, earning the infamous nicknames "The One-Man Army", "Mad Hatter" and "Lord High Executioner". Anastasia was also in control of the New York waterfront for most of his criminal career, including the dockworker unions.
👓 My 2019 Bucket List for Ramblinggit.com | Brad Enslen
Brad (Brad Enslen)Despite Gutenberg, it looks like this blog will remain on WordPress for awhile. There is nothing else that has all the features, stability, and Indieweb stuff I want. Each platform I have looked at is not quite ready yet, but a few may be ready someday. With that said, I do want to change things...