Web/Tech

Enthusiastic Apple fans, you say. Blithering idiots, I say:

A new report from Burning Glass, a labor market analytics company, has the numbers to prove what a lot of people have been saying the last few years about "degree inlation" -- a college degree is becoming the new high school diploma: the minimum credential required to get even the most basic, entry-level job:

This is one of the most vigorous defenses of free speech you'll ever see:

I know I've said this before, but it bears repeating, because it still isn't getting acknowledged in the right places. People keep harping on "the death of print" and missing the real point, which is that advertising is going away. News has always ridden on the back of advertising, and our advertisiers have discovered they no longer need to pay to reach a mass market. It's not just print journalism but the journalism itself that is in peril:

This is a long and depressing article about how print journalism has gone from heady optimism a year ago when Jeff Bezos plunked down $250 million for The Washington Post to despair and fear today because Gannett, Tribune Company and E.W. Scripps -- three of the biggest players -- are kicking their newspapers to the curb as do-or-die stand-alones so they can concentrate on their TV properties.

The pope wants us to not waste time on "futile things":

Our life is made up of time, and time is a gift from God, so it is important that it be used in good and fruitful actions."

The 17 ways driverless cars could change America. Some are obvous -- fewer accidents, changing layoutsof road and traffic patterns, altering the legal and insurance landscapes. This one took a little thought:

Stop all the hand-wringing, journalists. Things are actually looking pretty good:

But I would argue that maybe it’s not that bad, that maybe all the things that people have savaged the Internet for — speed, carelessness, chaos, the destruction of the daily newspaper — are actually creating a golden age for journalism.

[. . .]

Have debates on any aspect of Google's "driverless car" that you care to, but the bottom line is, "What kind of lame dweeb would even set foot in a vehicle that looks like this?"

Is it getting easier to fake cultural literacy?