Month: March 2009

Value of Journalism

Will newspapers survive? I think the physical form will survive for another 10 years at least at much lower valuation then eventually break into nich market fragments. The profession of journalism will, however, not only continue on but become more respected than before.

This is why I think so. When we are short of something we consume, like water in the desert, we put value in availability. As we approach ubiquitous availability of the same, we shift value to quality.

In a sea filled with unverified and biased news and information, we will rediscover the value of journalism. We will see memes as what they really are, mental viruses, and know the danger of careless consumption. As we have become more health conscious, we will also become more mental health conscious.

We’ll see products of journalism like bottled water, avoid reading/eating things off the ground, and see eaters of biased or mutated news as inbred rednecks. Those who can afford to pay, that is.

As usual, I am exaggerating. Not quite hyperbole but enough force to kickstart pointless thinking.

Leg Fetish

I’ve been too busy tinkering so, beyond twittering, I haven’t had the mindshare to blog. Sorry.

I think the stock market is in for another big leg down soon, not like the slide we’ve had lately but a drop of 500 pts or more in a day. One card Obama adminstration can play to stem or prevent the damage is the restoration of the up-tick rule.

I could be wrong, of course, so use your own judgement.

update on March 2nd at 10:41AM: Dow is at 6800 now, 200+ pts down but the volume is not there, just average so far, so this is not the massive volumn crash I was expecting. It’s as if hedge funds have changed their trading strategy from a disaster movie to suspense-building horror movie. Eerie. The only real support is still 300 pts away, btw, at 6500. There will be continued drama, of course. I’m just not sure what kind.

update on close March 2nd: So the market went down orderly in a straight line more or less with Dow closing down 300, S&P barely hanging on at 700 which makes it look bad. NASDAQ didn’t do too badly but volume was nearly 4x where Dow volume was about 1.5x. Spitting into the wind, downward pressure is still overwelming. I am done looking at the market for today. It’s time to look at some business plans and code.

a reminder to follow me on twitter: my tweets are mostly mindfart but look what I twitted last Thursday. 😉