5 Πράγματα Για Διάβασμα: Βιβλία, Εφημερίδες, Γραφίστες, Ποδόσφαιρο

Τώρα τελεταία, λόγω “Φεβρουαρίου“, δεν προλαβαίνω να διαβάζω όσο πριν. Ωστόσο μερικά διαμαντάκια τα παίρνω χαμπάρι και τα απολαμβάνω και να πέντε από δαύτα:

1) Το τελικό, απόλυτο κείμενο που παύει κάθε συζήτηση περί e-books. Διάβασέ το. Τώρα θα ξέρεις τι να λες στους φετιχιστές του χαρτιού:  Τα e-books δεν καίγονται.

What are the core characteristics of literature as a medium and an art form? Unlike painting there is no physical image to contemplate, nothing that impresses itself on the eye in the same way, given equal eyesight. Unlike sculpture, there is no artifact you can walk around and touch. You don’t have to travel to look at literature. You don’t have to line up or stand in the crowd, or worry about getting a good seat. Unlike music you don’t have to respect its timing, accepting an experience of a fixed duration. You can’t dance to it or sing along or take a photo or make a video with your phone.

Literature is made up of words. They can be spoken or written. If spoken, volume and speed and accent can vary. If written, the words can appear in this or that type-face on any material, with any impagination. Joyce is as much Joyce in Baskerville as in Times New Roman. And we can read these words at any speed, interrupt our reading as frequently as we choose. Somebody who reads Ulysses in two weeks hasn’t read it any more or less than someone who reads it in three months, or three years.

Only the sequence of the words must remain inviolate. We can change everything about a text but the words themselves and the order they appear in.

Αριστούργημα.

2) Στον Guardian ένας τύπος πιστεύει ότι οι γραφίστες καταστρέφουν το web.

Over the last decade, the size of web pages (measured in kilobytes) has more than septupled. From 2003 to 2011, the average web page grew from 93.7kB to over 679kB.

Ένας άλλος απαντά: Όχι.

3) Μπορεί μια τοπική  εφημερίδα να επιβιώσει χωρίς να έχει καν site; Μπορεί: Η Boston Courant είναι ένα τέτοιο παράδειγμα. Λέει ο ιδιοκτήτης της:

“I love journalism, but I’m also a business man,” Jacobs said, “and I have to stay in business and hopefully not just stay where I am but grow…In business, one of my philosophies has been the first pioneer into enemy territory gets all the arrows. Let someone else pay. I’m not going to experiment unless I see a profitable end game. And the bottom line there is I see no possible way to benefit my print advertisers, who pay my reporters’ salaries and my overhead, by having a website.”

4) Ταυτόχρονα, πολύ πιο κοντά μας, στην Ελβετία, μια τοπική εφημερίδα χρησιμοποιεί το Ίντερνετ για να βγάλει λεφτά. Και βγάζει.

When advertisers buy ads, they’re forced into a combination of print, online and, newly, mobile inventory. That inventory is allocated by formula. (…) Gossweiler says revenues come in at 4 million francs, which would leave franchisees with a profit of 1 million a year.

5) Να και μια εξήγηση για τις αιτίες που το ποδόσφαιρο δεν έχει “πιάσει” στις ΗΠΑ. Φταίει το θέατρο, λέει ο Ντέιβ Έγκερς

Flopping is essentially a combination of acting, lying, begging, and cheating, and these four behaviors make for an unappealing mix. The sheer theatricality of flopping is distasteful, as is the slow-motion way the chicanery unfolds. (…) American sports are, for better or worse, built upon transparency, or the appearance of transparency, and on the grind-it-out work ethic. This is why the most popular soccer player in American history is Sylvester Stallone.