Now and Then Premium Subscribers ask which I prefer, credit cards or Paypal, with the intention of using whatever costs me less. I’ve always appreciated the thought, and always said to use whichever works best for you, since by some weird coincidence, Paypal charged the same fees that card processors do — 2.9 percent of the total charged plus a 30-cent processing fee.
Online Life
Spotify Slapped by More than Neil Young
“Irresponsible Advice from a Man with No Credibility” is what podcaster Joe Rogan said would be the title of his next book, and was the slug on a story about the Spotify controversy in this week’s issue:
Review Spam: a Deadly Online Weapon
This week’s newsletter has two items that prompted deeper commentary, starting with the Headline of the Week, but ending with something astounding:
The First True Member of the Creator Economy?
Probably the Most Thorough Interview I’ve been subjected to happened in mid-June. It took journalist Simon Owens (who writes with great insight about the “Creator Economy”) until today to distill his notes down …to only 4,000 words! He was boggled that True was able to start, let alone survive, in the ancient days of the Internet, when there were no tools to do what I’ve been doing since 1994.
Snopsing Snopes
| Claim |
| In August 2021, Snopes’ co-founder and CEO David Mikkelson was revealed to be a serial plagiarizer, sloppily violating copyrights of other publications in an attempt to make the site look extremely proactive in uncovering news. |
| Rating |
 This is True |
Absurd Amazon-Aided Antics
We start with a story from this week’s column:
Facebook Accused Me of Hate Speech — and I Appealed (Twice!)
I Am Guilty of posting “Hate Speech” on social media …according to Facebook’s algorithms and whoever (or whatever) reviewed that declaration when I appealed.
090: Rescuing Uncommon Sense
In This Episode: A story in This is True struck me as an astonishing example of Uncommon Sense, so I thought I’d tell you about it to see some really out-of-the-box thinking, and provide some practical advice that could save your life. Here’s a hint: no one thinks they’re going to get lost and need rescue. Yet there are tens of thousands of rescues every year in the U.S. alone. What will increase your odds of being safe? Uncommon Sense.
Florida Man: Not a Recent Phenomenon
An academic’s “history” of “Florida Man” makes some startling — and completely wrong! — claims about how the “Florida Man meme” got started online. No, it wasn’t in 2012, or even the “mid-2000s”!
Deep Inside NASA’s JPL
Years Ago, I’d Get Early Notice of public tours coming up at my old workplace, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and tip off readers. It’s a lot easier to get that info in recent years so I haven’t bothered, but then …Covid. No tours. Except these days, the quality of “virtual tours” has increased so much that you can actually “go” places that you can’t go even if there was a public tour.
The Spammer (A Christmas Tale)
It’s absolutely possible to fight back against spammers …if you think about what would actually work. Pull up a chair by the fire and I’ll tell a story about how I did it this Christmas week, and turned The Grinch into a reformed marketer.
The Exploding Whale, 50 Years Later
The First-Ever Viral Video (which, naturally, was of the “weird news” variety!) was shot a half century ago today. This is its story, with a higher resolution video than most have ever seen.
Kill the Messenger
An item in this week’s newsletter is the tip of the iceberg of a much deeper problem: how bureaucrats so love to kill the messengers. First that item, from the 9 August 2020 issue — the Headline of the Week:
The Streisand Effect
Two recent This is True stories demonstrate the “Streisand effect,” and this page brings those two stories together (plus a third from 5 years ago), and then leads to more commentary on the “effect.”
Let’s start with the first of the two recent stories, from True’s 8 December 2019 issue:
The Return of Stella
In Issue 1345, I said I “should” have some news about the True Stella Awards “by late next month.” That would be late …April. When COVID really geared up I wasn’t sure how my schedule would be affected (etc.), so I paused. I’ve now unpaused! Instead of working on a podcast last week, I finally finished up the setup work for my Stella plan.
Top 3 (x4) of 2019
Looking at the stats for 2019 is showing what you all found the most interesting or entertaining to read (and listen to!) of my offerings this year.
054: Pre-Silicon Valley
In This Episode: A news story going around on social media sounds too amazing to be true. So I’m going to dig into the idea that the smartphone was invented in 1953. The back story is even more impressive: it nicely demonstrates that you don’t need a college education to have Uncommon Sense.
We’re On It
A story in this week’s newsletter is already being discussed intently online, so let’s jump in. Let’s start with True’s version of the story, from the 24 November 2019 issue:
050: The Mother of All Demos
In This Episode: One person with Uncommon Sense can have a profound effect on the world. Wait until you hear the story of Doug Engelbart: he’s the visionary behind many of the technologies you use most every day.
Modern Romance: a Parable
She said she wanted a man who knew the things she liked.
She said she wanted a man who would remember her birthday.