The Two Kinds of Books ( One Kind )

Saturday, October 25, 2014 8:31:01 PM

The Two Kinds of Books ( One Kind )

 

In The Very Near Future, Possibly as early as tomorrow, There will be Two Kinds of Books. & this Division Extends to Children’s or Adolescent Books;

1 ) Coffee Table Books

2 ) Electronic ( Digital Tablet ) Books

 

Electronic, Digital Books are for Reading, Principally Classical ( Novella ) Fiction, or Very Dry Non-Fiction.

All Non-Fiction though, Written with The Intention of Being Educational, Should be Published as Coffee Table Books.

 

By Coffee Table Books; i mean;

Big Illustrated Pages with Prose Poems for Text.

 

Although The Classic Coffee Table Book is Usually Pretty Large, Intended to be Read ( or Perused ) while laying Flat on A Table or On Lush Carpeting, while you lay prone, supported by Decorative Throw Pillows, The Coffee Table book may easily be much smaller. i have several very small books of this genre, which often take The Form of 500 (x.

 

Such as my Beloved _500 Chairs_ Book / © 2008 Lark Books

 

Most Art Books would take this Form.

As a small side note; i can Not Stand ( Stomach ) Art books with either No Pictures, or Poorly Reproduced Black & White Images.

Ugh. ( ! )

OR :

Any book with A Photo Insert Section.

 

i have often thought; ( or asked )

How well do Children’s Books Sell ?

 

Sure; There are lots of Children, & Any Good Parent buys their children lots of Books, But The Children’s Book Market is also Fully Saturated, So that any Given Children’s Book is Competing Against a Much Larger ( Genre ) of Books, as opposed to any given cheaply reproduced Science Fiction Paperback or Romance Novel.

 

But, you see;

The Point i am making, is that Children’s books are always Lushly Produced with huge Colorful Pages.

Why aren’t all books made like this ?

That is my Question ?

 

Specifically;

i often come across Fringe Science, or Science Books that have few illustrations, or very poorly reproduced illustrations, & i have thought, why wasn’t this book created with The Same Enthusiasm as any given children’s book ?

i am sure ( ? ) That if it were, it would enjoy a much broader readership. As i just pointed out ( Asked ), It can’t be all that much more expensive to make such a book, Although i would allow that it would seem that it Should be much more expensive.

How then, can The Children’s Book Market Persist ?

 

i suspect that one solution for this puzzle is that many writers of ‘Intellectual’ or ‘Pseudo-Intellectual’ Books, have this kooky idea that books with ‘Pictures’ in them, are Necessarily ‘Children’s Books’, So that if they do find themselves obligated to include a photograph, graphic image or illustration for some reason, they make sure that it is of The Poorest Imaginable Quality so that it Won’t Be Aesthetically Appealing ( !!! )

 

i find it Incomprehensible how any, ( Literally ANY ) Publisher or Editor would allow an otherwise scholarly book of any real merit, to be Published with these gawd-awful illustrations or photographs in them ( ? )

 

What are they Thinking ?

 

Again; Would it really be that much more Expensive to Publish a ‘Nice’ Book ( ? )

Does it have to ( Necessarily ) be Drab & Ugly to be taken seriously by ‘Intellectuals’ ( ? )

 

One thing that i noticed when i was fairly young;

Around 11 or 12 years old, Was that The Smartest Kids in School were The Silliest ones. Very rarely would i find a really bright student that was overly sullen &/or morose.

The ‘Ordinary’ or ‘Dull’ Students were The ones that were Glum & Sulky, Trying to ‘Appear’ ’Serious’.

 

The ones that really were Serious about their Education & were Engaged in Their Own Futures, didn’t care a lick about how they appeared to others.

 

So i think this same ‘Formula’ applies to Book Publishing.

 

Scientific American; A Very Serious Scientific Journal is Always filled with Very Colorful & Informative Illustrations & Photographs, Because The Publisher of SciAm knows that their Readers want to be ‘Easily’ Educated & aren’t concerned with ‘Appearing’ to be smart by having to scratch through pages after page of incomprehensible text to find an interesting idea or revelation.

 

Actually;

What i would really like to see, is all books published for a Digital Medium in The Same Manner as Magazines.

 

The One Kind of Future Books :

1 ) Digital Magazines

 

i have dozens of Magazines on my Kindle Fire, & they are much more enjoyable to read than A Paper-Magazine.

 

Firstly ; They much more Convenient to lug around.

 

Two : They don’t exhibit Page Glare that is very common with Glossy Illustrations on Paper Magazines.

 

Three : With The Magazines that feature The Alternative [ Text ] Mode; This makes it very easy to read The Article. i especially like The Infinite Scroll down, which i think should be available ( As an Option ) to all Books.

i have a Bible App that also features a Auto-Crawl Feature which ( Would, if it were faster ! ) makes reading even easier !

 

Four (a : The Most Enjoyable Feature of Digital Magazines is that they are so Lush Looking & The Pinch & Zoom Feature makes them very easy to examine fine details in The Illustrations, Pictures or Text Blocks.

 

Four (b : One of kinds of Book that i have discovered that i very much _Do Not_ like; are Graphic Novels published for Digital Tablets !!! They have been ‘Over-Produced’ to Ostensibly make them ’Easier’ to Read, Jumping from Pane to Pane, but this actually makes them much Harder & Often very Frustrating to Read, because The Pinch to Zoom doesn’t work Consistently or Reliably, & there are often ‘Additional’ features that are activated by touching The Screen in a Variety of ‘Clever’ Ways that make reading them Additionally Annoying !!! If they were Dumbed down to The Level of Ordinary Magazines which present each Page as a Single Easily Examined Single Image that can be Intuitively Navigated Over, They would be much better.

 

Five : No Matter How Big ( Long ) The Book or How many Pictures or Illustrations you want to Include; The Production End of it’s Creation would be Practically Free, as would Distribution.

 

Six : Any Pre-Adolescent Child with a Sense of Quality & A Modicum of Design Appreciation would be able to create a .pdf that would be entirely equivalent to The Most Well Made Fashion Magazines now available, & would then be viewed on any Digital Tablet as a 100% Equivalent Product. Any Child that produces a School Report any less than this is a Slacker.

 

Seven : The only ( Cost ) ( Downside ) of this is that Digital Tablet would require more Internal Memory than they now typically possess. When i first got my Kindle Fire, i was annoyed that it came with only 16Gb, of which i was only able to access or use about 12Gb of that. i was also aware that The Apps would take up quite a bit of that Memory Resource, leaving almost none for The Actual Books— But Amazingly ( To my Great Surprise ) i was able to fill up my Kindle Fire with Dozens & Dozens of Books, quite a few Game & other Apps, Plus Several Dozen Magazines. The Magazines by far are The Memory Hogs & The Few Times that i have ‘Run Out’ of memory, that Collection is where The Trimming is Performed. But even So, Although The Kindle Fire doesn’t allow me to Store The Magazines on my Computer, they remain accessible in The Cloud, so that i can retrieve them at any time i wish.

 

Also : Downloading a Magazine takes MUCH longer than a Book. Sometimes 20_minutes !!! or so, as opposed to a book of nothing but text, which takes less than a minute.

 

So that : If these Downloads could take place entirely in ‘The Background’ while i use The Tablet for other Functions, that process would become invisible ( unnoticeable ).

 

In The Near Future ( Next Week ) These Magazines will cross The Book/App Divide & become much more Interactive, Featuring Films, Audio Tracks & such. The New Yorker Magazine already has Features like this to some degree, but they are just experimenting with these things.

 

One thing that i would like; Is when a Letters Column Item refers to an article in a previous Issue, It would be very convenient to simply jump to that previous article & jump back.

 

Some magazines allow you to look up words, which is much more common in books, but since most of these magazines are ( apparently ) page scans of The Paper Versions, The Text is only images, like The Pictures. In The Future; These Digital Magazines will be produced as Digital Interactive Magazines, & then Scanned Down for The Paper Versions !

Old Peeve concerning Banks and Bank-Loans ( ? )

Tuesday, October 14, 2014 7:23:39 AM

How Banks Should Provide Loans

One of The Things that i really hate about Western Culture’s Economics is how we depend upon Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand to Regulate Small Businesses in The Market Place.

i am perfectly willing to acknowledge that this actually works, providing loans for entrepreneurs that would otherwise have a very difficult time acquiring these funds, But this occurs at a terrible cost, In that most of these businesses fail.

i have witnessed several such small businesses that i felt were doomed from The Beginning, & it seemed very foolhardy for The Bank to have ever loaned them enough money for these people to ruin their lives. In one case; A Woman that i knew used her own Retirement funds from a career at Sears to start a RubberStamp Store, which lasted about 3 years. Which was actually surprisingly long, But she drawing on her then husbands income to keep it afloat for 2 years as it was pitifully sinking !!!

The Flaw in this business was that this Woman, who did Not appear to be clinically retarded, just sat in her shop day after day, waiting for customers to come in & buy rubber stamps. It seemed to me that she should have spend The whole day, every day ( aside from other necessary duties & such ) making hand-made cards, Modified Books ( Taking an Old ( Worthless ) Book & Then Cutting it up & Making it into something Very Special ) or Making other very Special ( Big ) Projects, which she’d then sell on Ebay or through their own Website, as The Internet was just getting started at this time.

When you’re starting a new business, you have to work work work, all of The time to make it a success !

Anways.

- -

In another case; A Small Grocery Store opened in The neighborhood that i was living in, that sold exclusively Asian Foods. The problem being; There were Absolutely No Asians in this Neighborhood ( ! ) It may well be entirely reasonable that non-asians would like to eat Asian foods occasionally or regularly, But as a business model for a corner grocery store in a neighborhood that needed a corner grocery store that sold ‘expected’ items that one might need in The Evenings or Late Afternoon, between trips to The Larger Safeway or Piggly Wiggly, This was a very bad idea. This Asian Store lasted about a year before there was a mysterious ‘Fire’ that gave them an excuse to close.

- -

How Banks should provide Loans.

It seems obvious that Banks should only provide loans to businesses that they believe will succeed, As opposed to any business that provides enough collateral to make foreclosure profitable !!!

- -

Step One : Provide Loans to Businesses that The Financial Adviser, Who is Well Educated & -Open Minded to New Ideas- decides that this is an Idea whose Time has Come ! & Helps The Would-be Businessmyn to Start up their Dream.

 

Step Two : At this Time; At The Very Beginning— The Bank is a Full Minor Partner, Say - Owning 20% of The Business or Having 20% Say in any Business Decisions, which would remain in effect for The First 3 years or so. At The end of that period, The Business can fully buy out The Banks ‘investment’ whether The Bank wants to sell or Not.

 

Step Three : The Bank should have ‘Models’ which predict with a high degree of accuracy, How Any Given ’Type’ of Business should establish itself & begin growing. If The Business deviates from its predicted survival path ‘too much’, ( towards bankruptcy ) The Bank can step in & Claim a Greater Percentage of The Businesses & Insist on making changes, perhaps even investing more money ( Their Money as A Partnership Investment ) into The Business to Insure that it survives !

 

Step Four : At some point; The Bank may make an assessment that The Business is irrevocably failing, & then proceed along a new path of Business acquisition, rather than foreclosure. If The Bank is Unwilling to take this Step, they should have never invested in it to begin with ( ! )

 

Step Five : Total Amalgamation ( !!! ) The Bank & Business Acknowledge that The Business ( as it is being run ) is a complete washout & doomed to failure, At which point, The Conventional approach would be for The Current Owner to Declare Bankruptcy & The Bank would foreclose on their assets. Under this -New Approach- though; The Bank would simply Take Over The Business, Installing a New Manager & Even some New Employees, but - - ! - - Retaining The Old Owner as an Assistant Manager, or somesuch. The New Model would then continue on under this New Organization for a Time - - & Either Fail or Succeed. If it Fails, The Old Owner is Now Unemployed & Loses all The Companies Assets - - But if The Business then Succeeds, After a Period of 3 or 5 or 7 or 12 years ( ! ), The Original Owner may ReObtain -Their- Business by Buying Out The Bank, whether The Bank is Willing to or Not ( ! )

- -

 

This Approach Insures that All New Businesses are Given The Best Possible Chance of Succeeding, & The Least Possible Chance of The Store’s Location being Gutted & becoming an Eyesore for The Community.

- -

 

This Same Approach would be Available for Home Financing, In which a Family that Originally obtains a loan to buy a house, And Then later falls into -Hardship- & fails to make a number of loan payments, &/or is unable to restructure their loan to a new arrangement with The Bank; The Bank would simply then own The House, But instead of boarding it up & allowing drug dealing or homeless squatters to move in - - They would allow The Original Family to continue living there, caring for The House ( Under The Banks Supervision ) & pay a reasonable Rent for remaining there. The Bank would only Evict This Family, which has a Strong -Weight- to remaining in The House, If A New Buyer is Immediately Available, So that The House Would Never be Vacant for Any Period longer than 7 Days.

- -

 

It just seems completely Crazy to me that a Bank would ever foreclose on a Business or House, Unless they were somehow going to -Make- Money from this Decision. Just to Close a Business down or Evict a Family from Their Home & then Throw everything away is just supremely Dumb. ( ? )

- -

 

To The Credit of Western Civilization; While i was sitting down at The RubberStamp Shoppe one afternoon, Kris was saying that a local Barbershop in an Office Building in The Downtown Area which was on The Downslide ( ! ), hadn’t paid their rent for that space for several months ! But They were allowed to stay, because it would Not have been profitable for The Building’s managers to leave That space empty. ( ! )

- -

 

- Which many other building managers are perfectly willing to do, resulting in decrepit neighborhoods that are less & less inviting to new businesses.

Things that Should have Happened by Now ( ? )

This is A Simplified List ( without Commentary ) of Things that Should have Been.

The Question that this List Poses is :

Why haven’t these things happened ( ? )

If one is to ‘Entertain’ that these things should have in fact happened, & acknowledged that they haven’t happened, & can Not provide a reasonable explanation for why they haven’t happened, Then perhaps it is ‘reasonable’ to allow that UnReasonable Explanations or A Single UnReasonable Explanation may eloquently explain them all away.

 

The Principle UnReasonable Explanation that i would like to proffer is that we are living in A ScreenSave Reality that is being ‘Orchestrated’ by Angels, Daemons, Gawds or A 12_year old living in our Host Reality that is using off The Shelf Software on her Home Computer to create a Game of Sorts, which is our Reality.

 

We are very nearly at The Point where we will soon be able to create such a Fully Actualized Reality of our own, on our Home Computers or Reading Tablets. The only remaining hump that we must overcome is Not The Vast Complexity of A Fully Detailed Reality, which could easily be ‘Faked’, But The Problem of Consciousness. We might easily ( soon ) be able to Push something like Second-Life or Sims to A World indistinguishable from our own, but filling it with genuinely Conscious Entities or perhaps only providing it with one or two Genuinely Conscious Entities, & filling in The Rest of ‘Their’ reality with Ghosts & Puppets which either they ‘Subliminally’ Control or we ( The User/Operator ) would Vicariously Control with a Preferences Pane for Each.

 

Anyways.

 

The Evidence that Something is Very Hinky about The World that we Live in :

 

1)              Tides.

2)              The Size of The Moon & Sun.

3)              Why didn’t Leonardo Invent a Hang Glider?

4)              Isn’t it very odd that Hang Gliders weren’t invented for nearly a hundred years -After- The Airplane.

5)              Why didn’t The Romans invent The Bicycle?

6)              Although there are countless very odd films & film genres, Isn’t it odd that there isn’t a genre of films that consist of nudists? There are X & XXX films, but what i mean by this; Are films that are ‘Ordinary’ in every other respect, except that all The actors are nudists? There aren't -Any- Films like this! ?

7)              Why isn’t there a Viable Robot Kit that any child can use to create a Robot that is Genuinely of their own design, as opposed to Lego Mind-Storms which sets ridged parameters to how The Robots can be designed & Created?

8)              In 1966 a Very Clever & Very Simple Demonstration of AI was Created in BASIC called ‘Eliza’ which fooled many people ( for a few minutes ! ) into thinking that this program was Genuinely Conscious. Why hasn’t this approach been ramped up in The intervening 50 years, to at The very least, Become a truly functional search engine for The Internet. All of The Search Engines that we have are still only searching for Key Words, & very clumsily at that.

9)              Why hasn’t anyone Robbed a Bank with A Robot?

10)        Although The Evening News is Routinely Peppered with Accounts of -Senseless- Murders by Teenagers, Why aren’t there -Any- Sensible Murders? Such as of Evil Politicians, CEOs, Gangsters or Lobbyists. Why aren’t there any Righteous ‘Hit-Myn’ ( Serial Killers ) that are roving The World Murdering Bad People, Instead of 20ish Blondes of a Specific Weight Class?

11)        Although using Airplanes as Weapons or Bombs has been examined, This Raw Idea may easily be Extended to a Variety of Other Large Machines which has been ruefully neglected. Why hasn’t anyone used a Giant Mining Dump Truck, Gasoline Truck or Souped up Bull Dozer as a Weapon of Terror?

12)        Why don’t we ever hear of Sex Scandals that involve Inappropriate Petting of Pets?

13)        Why isn’t there a World Religion for Solipsism?

14)        Why do we allow ‘Scientists’ to spread wildly inaccurate ’Truths’ of theirs that are Obviously Wrong? Consider that Physicists would have us believe that all objects fall at The Same Velocity on The Earth, & The Same, but Slower Velocity on The Moon. What if We Dropped The Earth onto The Moon or Vice-Versa. Which rate would they fall together at? The Faster Earth Falling Velocity or The Slower Moon Velocity?

15)        Or in The Case of The Second Law of Thermodynamics, Which Says that everything tends towards ‘Disorder’, but wouldn’t this mean that The Universe was much more Orderly Billions of years ago. Even if you discount The Phenomena of Life, which has come into being ( as far as we know ) recently, What do they mean by ‘Orderly’. How was The Universe more ‘Orderly’ 10 Billion years ago?

16)        Why hasn’t there ever been a case of a Pirate Television Station broadcasting hard-core Porn?

17)        Have you ever heard of children filling Water Balloons with Poison Ivy Sap ? This seems like a very ‘Obvious’ method of High-Mischief to me ( ? )

18)        Why hasn’t anyone invented an X-Ray Gun for Terrorist Purposes ?

19)        Given that Oil Fields occur throughout The World, many of which are under The Oceans, Why aren’t there ever any Natural Oil Spills caused by EarthQuakes ?

20)        E=MC^2 is clearly Nonsensical. Why would The Speed Light be used as a factor here ?

21)        We used to hear about Russian ‘Sleeper Agents’ during The Cold War, but why haven’t any of our ‘Contemporary’ Enemies used this approach against us?

22)        It certainly seems ‘Obvious’ that there should be innumerable Real ’Snuff Films’ in circulation, & although there are many videos of genuine executions or other atrocities, We are told by law-enforcement agencies & others that there just aren’t any ‘Real’ ( Porn ) Films that involve actual murders ( ? )

23)        The Same Phenomena is applicable with ‘Satanic Baby Sacrificing Cults’ Every once in awhile a new accusation of such a cult existing will crop up, usually involving local politicians or other wealthy individuals, & later shown to be pure bunk. Surely there really are, amoung all The Junior High Satanic Cults, A few Satanic Cults that consist of Adults that Routinely Sacrifice Actual Infants ( ? )

24)        How can it be that The Internet is somehow ‘Cleansed’ of Famous Personalities that have endured Scandalous Histories. There was, in The 1970s, a comparatively famous local personality ( Eastern Washington State ) named Clarey Wright; That has somehow been deleted ( Soviet Style ) from all Historical Reference Books & The Internet ( ? )