JB Links (2)

A short video from the BBC. Maybe not enough to justify the entire licence fee but an interesting take on why paper remains such a feature of modern life. Examining what happens at the national archive we learn that they have 180km of shelf space, while only 8% is digitised and available over the internet. To reduce the number of boxes produced in the reading room each year, by only 20%, would cost a staggering £259m. The problem? Making it searchable. Scanning the paper only creates images, making it available needs metadata added, and that is expensive.

 
An interesting essay from Issac Asimov examining degrees of wrong. In this current day, with a resurgent creationist movement starting to push outside of the boundaries of the Americun south it is instructive to remind ourselves that even though science is not a universal oracle with absolute truth at its fingertips, it is a reliable process of ongoing discovery and knowledge – even IF,or more importantly because, that knowledge is constantly updated.

What’s next for newspapers. A look at 3 different approaches to the problem of getting a profit out of the news. Here we learn how Warren Buffet, Rupert Murdoch and the Newhouse family are taking the challenge forward (well in one of those examples backwards). Who even knew that Buffet had taken an interest, clever man.

The Mast brothers make some enticing sounding chocolate. I can’t tell you if it’s any good as I haven’t seen it on this side of the Atlantic, although I have suggested to the manager at Sage and Bailey in Wimbledon village that he gets me some. They are a little too painfully hipster cool for me, but are a great example of affluence leading the push to old school process and sustainable activity. The beans for their chocolate are literally transported over from South America under sail and then made into chocolate in Brooklyn. Also their blog

And finally the weather forecast we all want. NOW please.