Liberty Egg

Is the Journal written for an 8th grader?...in 1960, maybe.

A colleague sent me a VERY interesting article on reading "grade levels" and how different publications write to different levels.

http://www.impact-information.com/impactinfo/newsletter/plwork15.htm

But, these numbers seem off to me...

First, there is NO WAY that the Boston Globe is done at a higher reading level than the New York Times...no way.

Second, there is no way that the Globe is done at a 12th grade level.

Only way of explaining this to my mind is that the real level that defines Grade-Level has been shifting down (lower reading equaling higher "grade-level") in the past number of years...

The Wall St. Journal was not referenced in this article, but I have seen it written numerous times over the past 20 years that it was written to an 8th grade level...and there is no way it is written to a lower level than Time or TV Guide...maybe it was written to the 8th grade level of 30 years ago...I mourn for the future of this country.

Fullers - a cultural experience

So I stumbled into this very non-descript restaurant in NC the weekend before last in the middle of a long drive to FL.  Expecting to get some BBQ and get back on the road, little did I know I was in for a cultural experience...

The cultural experience came not only from the food that you can only get in the south - fried gizzards and tripe were among the things in the buffet that you would NEVER see in the north - but also from the fact that the people watching was as good as it gets.  There was not a tourist in the place - except for my father and myself.  Now I don't want to come across as a snobbish northeastern elistist, but the people you meet in that neck of the woods are different from those you would meet anywhere in MA.

Finally, the food was tremendous.  It was a HUGE buffet of fried seafood (and amazing stuffed crabs), barbequed meats, two types of fried chicken and about 85 different southern style vegetables - collards, lima beans and ham hock...

iPhone - the same mistake made over again?

It is hard to argue with Steve Jobs.  He made Apple a huge success not once, but twice.

iPod was everything the Newton was not.  Yes, I know they are different devices, but iPod achieved simplicity in design and use that Newton never did...it took the Palm to get to that level of simplicity on the PDA front.  iPod has won HUGE market share by being a better user experience from soup to nuts...and part of that was the upfront ease of using iTunes for music.

But in the last decade it is open systems that have won the eventual race and iTunes/iPod are anything but open.  When the rest of the household audio/visual stack catch up and people can easily move their viewing/listening from device to device, people will have a problem with closed systems.  If I own a song/video, why can't I use it on any device I choose?  Why should Apple limit me?

Now the iPhone has followed the same closed path...only on cingular, no 3rd party apps allowed, no way to use the included wi-fi to make voice connections...etc.

Just like Apple might have owned the Operating System if it had freed it from having to run on Apple hardware, so might it have reinvented the whole telecom industry if it had enabled the iPhone to openly use all comers, to make phone calls with only a wi-fi connection...imagine.

Someone will go there.  It should have been Apple.

Becks to LA

Regardless of whether you like David Beckham or think he is past his prime or that he is a whinny self-absorbed player with a wife who screams of needing an intervention that involves plenty of calories, it is a good thing that he is coming to MLS...for a few reasons.

1. He is the first major, major player to come here.  This gives legitimacy to the league.
2. He is the most popular player in world right now (in Asia, there are litteraly shrines set up in his honor) and his playing here will bring the world's attention to our league, not to mention revenues in the form of broadcast licensing and merchandise.
3. His arrival might be the spark needed to make the MLS a prime destination for twilight stars - Luis Figo to the Revolution would be HUGE!
4. This addition of stars, including Beckham, will put people into the seats who would not have been there otherwise - be they anglophilic star-watchers watching Beckham or immigrant communities there to watch newly arrived stars from the national teams of there home country.  If this happens enough, it could change the economics of the league.

So let's just hope that Posh REALLY likes living in LA...