1921: Napoleon Hill: Not His Finest Hour

From a 1921 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association:

DOCTORS, BEWARE!

We are undone — or possibly it would be more accurate to say that we are about to be undone. The medical profession is to meet its Napoleon. A few days ago those fortunate individuals whose names are on the mailing list of the Palmer School of Chiropractic, Davenport, Iowa, received a three-page letter from Napoleon Hill, the editor of Napoleon Hill’s Magazine, “A Magazine of Economic Philosophy” having offices in New York City. Napoleon has a secret for the chiropractors — such a vital secret that he can make public only a small part of it at this time. It is this: Napoleon, “in addition to carrying on a systematic propaganda … in behalf of Chiropractic” in his magazine, has “arranged with one of the best men in the moving picture business to write a psychological play that will be filmed and shown broadcast over America and in Canada.” But let Nap. tell it:

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1903: Two Amazing Views Of NYC

From a 1903 issue of Appleton’s Magazine (click to enlarge):

Interviews Are Not Game Shows

Riddles have no place in job interviews

It’s one thing to ask an open-ended technical question that lends itself to straightforward answers (e.g., “What are some things you could do to minimize the time spent in garbage collection?”). It’s quite another to subject the interviewee to game-show riddles. “Four people want to cross a bridge. They all begin on the same side. You have twelve minutes to get all of them across to the other side. It is night. There is one flashlight. A maximum of two people can cross at one time,” etc.

My reply to a riddle question would be this riddle: “How many times do you think your lips can fit on my ass? Because my answer is, ‘Go kiss my ass.’.”

All of these people who think they are so smart could not figure out the answer to the non-riddle question Steve Jobs asked: “How do you re-invent the phone?”

Don’t be intimidated by any of them. They’re not as smart as they think.

Additional:

What Android Handsets Looked Like Before and After the iPhone
Original Google Android Phone Looked Nothing Like the iPhone

Eight Is The New Seven In Tablets

Hot on the heels of Google teaming with rival LG to bring the Nexus 7 to 7.7, Samsung pipes up, further confirming my assertion that this is the year of the eight-inch tablet:

Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet rumored to be unveiled at Mobile World Congress

Rumored specs include a 1280 x 800 display, 5-megapixel back camera, 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, 2GB of RAM, and either 32GB or 64GB of storage.

I hope those screen specs are wrong, but they likely aren’t. They’ll be spreading the same 1280 x 800 pixels of their 7.7 over an eight-inch screen. Larger pixels. Bleh.

Anyway, this tablet will still be interesting because it will probably bring Samsung’s multi-window capability with it. See that in action in a video here of the Galaxy Note II phone.

It will face the eight-inch Archos 80 Platinum, which will be just US$199. It might face an iPad Mini with IGZO Retina display this year too — which I expect will remain at the painful US$329 price point (but will finally deserve it).

We Are This Future

From a 1903 issue of Appleton’s Magazine (reformatted for easier reading):

A Problem of the Future

Carnegie is the great bestower of libraries, and the fact that his money can create many libraries that contain all the books ever written that are worth while, leads one to wonder whether private fortunes of the future will be commensurate to the bestowal of any complete library anywhere, for the mind is appalled by what we may come to in a thousand years in the way of books.

Rejecting A Carnegie Library

From a 1903 issue of Appleton’s Magazine:

A Clever Guilt Trap

From a 1903 issue of Appleton’s Magazine:

The Plan was Successful

There are many ways of fixing a misdemeanor upon the person who has committed it. It is commonly thought that lawyers, and not clergymen, are the men most competent for this practice, but the following story leaves one feeling that the honors may be equal:

“Last Sunday,” said the clergyman to his congregation, “someone put a button in the collection-bag. I won’t mention names; I will merely say that only one individual in the congregation could have done so, and I shall expect the same member, after the service, to replace the button with a coin of the realm.”

Amazon’s Market Obesity

Amazon May Already Have Reached 50% Market Share of the U.S. Fiction Book Market Across All Formats

The amazing thing would be that, in three waves of about half a dozen years each, Amazon would have completed a total transformation of the U.S. publishing and bookselling business. (Only the third wave, of course, has been strictly about ebooks.) And for better or worse, that transformation is a game-changer in every sector of publishing and bookselling activity including, of course, the activities of authors and readers.

And who is to “blame” for this?

The stupidity of the Big Six (soon to be Four), period.

And Bookish remains in perpetual private beta.

Abusive Government Out Of Control

The Interior Secretary’s $222,000 Bathroom

Maybe the Pentagon’s legendary $600 toilet seat was a bargain.

The personal bathroom used by the secretary of the Interior is so swanky that its renovation cost $222,000. No detail was overlooked: It has a $3,500 sub-zero refrigerator (hey, if you’re going to have a fridge in the bathroom, it might as well be a good one) and a $689 faucet. At least the “vintage tissue holder” was cheap: just $65 bucks.

When you’re suckered into thinking people who need assistance are sucking us dry, remember the guy who requires $220,000 just to take a shit.

And how much did your house cost? Oh, you can’t afford a house?

England’s old King George is having a great laugh.