Seven years ago, when Amazon was in the midst of a contentious pricing battle with one of the country’s largest publishers, a group of famous authors banded together to make the case that publishing was a crucial industry for the nation’s cultural and intellectual life.
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America’s economic overlords offered their first quarter earnings reports yesterday, and the news is, as expected, good for Silicon Valley. Beyond good, in fact. The country’s tech industry is taking in unprecedented amounts of money—“bonkers dollars,” as The New York Times described it. Facebook doubled its profits; Microsoft increased its cloud business revenue by 50 percent; Apple’s iPhone sales boomed from about $29 billion to $48 billion; and Amazon, king of kings in this group, reported $108.5 billion in quarterly earnings... Читать дальше...
In one sense, there has never been a show like Rutherford Falls before. Streaming on NBC’s service Peacock, Rutherford Falls is focused on the fictional titular northeastern town and the also-fictional Minishonka Nation. Brought to life by Parks and Rec and The Good Place creator Michael Schur, The Office star Ed Helms, and Navajo showrunner Sierra Teller Ornelas, the series features the first-ever Native-majority writing staff on a big-studio comedy series. Not only that, but half of the cast... Читать дальше...
As members of the World Trade Organization meet Friday afternoon, countless residents of the United States, United Kingdom, the European Union, and other wealthy regions will be getting their second Covid-19 vaccine, as Covid cases in these places decline. Thousands in India, where 60 percent of the world’s vaccines are made, will be dying.
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Statehood for the District of Columbia has become a live issue in recent weeks. House Democrats recently passed, again, a bill that would make D.C. America’s fifty-first state—a move that the Biden administration has characterized as an important step forward for democratic reform and civil rights and which Republicans have characterized as the coming end of the republic. But there’s also another statehood push in the works. Earlier this month, the House heard testimony on the status of Puerto Rico... Читать дальше...
On April 5, Fox News debuted a weeknight show called Gutfeld! in the 11 o’clock hour, a slot that other networks reserve for the likes of Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and Stephen Colbert. Hosted by a longtime Fox contributor named Greg Gutfeld, the new show promises to take on the liberal late-night hosts who have “the market cornered in calling Americans stupid.” The show was a crowning achievement for its host, and it logged high ratings on its first night, but Gutfeld’s presence in the Fox lineup... Читать дальше...
Earlier this week, StreetsBlog New York reported on a community board meeting in a wealthy Manhattan neighborhood where members debated a nonbinding proposal that would encourage restaurants to let app-based delivery workers use their bathrooms. While there isn’t anything like a definitive count, current estimates hold that there are between 50,000 and 80,000 of these workers in New York City—a number that surged in the pandemic. It seems obvious that they need somewhere to pee. “They deserve better. Читать дальше...
One afternoon in 1935, Milman Parry, a 33-year-old scholar whose research would revolutionize the study of Ancient Greek poetry, was unpacking his suitcase at the Palms hotel in Los Angeles. According to his wife, Marian, Parry was naked from the waist up and rummaging through his clothes when he accidentally jostled a handgun tangled up in a shirt, which sent a bullet into his heart. Underneath a news photograph of Marian taken later that year, a caption read: “Mrs. Milman Parry, who was widowed in Los Angeles... Читать дальше...
