The brutal murder of 23-year-old Kevin Kless, Jan. 14, near the Liberty Bell has gotten world wide headlines.
Day: January 21, 2012
Net Advertising To Surpass Print In ’12
Marketing analyst eMarketer.com is saying that internet advertising spending for the first time will be greater than that for advertising spending in print media this year.
eMarketer predicts that spending for on-line ads will grow 23.3 percent to $39.5 billion while spending in magazines will shrink 6.1 percent to $36 billion.
The climate is changing and only the small reptiles will survive.
One thing that would be of benefit to the taxpayer and would have long happened but for the logic of corruption inherent in the use of tax money would be the end of requirements for governments to take out public notices in print media. These notices are for things like meeting schedules, bids sought and especially sheriff sales.
The requirement for these notices cost the taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. Newspapers, it should be noted, reserve their highest rates for this mandated advertising.
Allowing these things to be published and stored on the web — and yes, there should be a mandate to do this — would be far cheaper and more efficient. The notices would be searchable and publicly archivable, which would mean significantly more open government.
In fact a bill is pending in Harrisburg, HB 633, that would allow for web publishing of public notices. The newspapers, unsurprisingly, are very much against it, and it has been languishing in the House’s Local Government Committee since Feb. 14.
Internet Addicting As Cocaine
Internet Addicting As Cocaine — Chinese researchers have found indications that internet addiction produces similar changes to the brain as addiction to alcohol and cocaine
Scientists at the Shanghai Mental Health Center scanned the brains of 17 adolescents diagnosed with “internet addiction disorder” who had been referred to the, and compared the results with scans from 16 of their peers.
They found impairment of white matter fibers in the brain connecting regions involved in emotional processing, attention, decision making and cognitive control, which were similar to that for alcoholics and cocaine addicts.
It is estimated that between 5 and 10 percent of internet users — mostly gamers — are addicted.
How does one know if one is an addict? One example used was if one spends 14 hours playing games nightly online, and find oneself unable to quit despite the damage it may be doing in one’s life, then one is an addict.
